In the last quarter of the 20th century Russia was influenced by the severe crisis. It resulted in the fact that the regional problems became of great importance and threatened the state integrity of Russia. These problems are explained both by objective and subjective reasons which are deeply rooted in the Russian history. It is impossible to understand the depth of the crisis and work out effective ways of overcoming it, without making out these reasons and studying the experience of regional management. For the last 15 years we have paid much attention to this fact in our publications (see the text of the article and notes). The aim of the publication is to show the Russian regional policy as the complex of the geopolitical choice of the state from historical alternatives on the background of national and regional interests. It pre-detennined the study of interaction of the military-strategical, resources-economic and social-cultural components under the definite historical conditions. This study is done in order to evaluate the efficiency of administrative decisions both on the side of high authorities and of the local community, and to find the common principles which determine the tendency of regional development. As it was impossible to examine the whole complex of problems within one publication, the author concentrated his attention on the most typical ones and tried to solve them mostly with the help of materials concerning the eastern regions. Such choice is explained by the fact that the eastern regions take the most part of the territory of the state ahd have specific geopolitical and economic importance.