In the last few years, great attention has been paid to the protest potential of students, especially in the context of the mass protests of 2021-2022, which happened at both federal and regional levels. An important scientific issue, which is of practical importance for public authorities and politicians, is determining the motivations and actualization of the student protest movements, as the most organized segment of the youth environment. Based on the results of 14 focus groups held in 8 border regions of Siberia and the Far East (including the Altai Krai, the Zabaykalsky Krai, the Primorsky Krai and the Khabarovsk Krai, the Omsk Oblast, as well as Tyva, Buryatia and Altai Republics) as well as the analysis of the social media and blogosphere of the mentioned regions, the author suggests that the students experience fears, weariness, and disappointment. However, the factors actualizing the protest moods are highly limited. Actual precedents and threats of criminal prosecution that have been applied to the political activists by the government since 2019, as well as the pressure from the authorities and the socialization agents, lead to the demoralization of the youth and their refusal to participate not only in protests but also in pro-government events.

As a response to the special military operation, the discourse on the “colonial” nature of the Russian Federation and the prominent local identity among students in the national-territorial regions of the SFD, such as the Republics of Altai, Khakassia and Tuva, have amplified. This poses the question of the formation of a civic identity and patriotic feelings among young people as the basis for legitimizing political institutions and structures. Important mechanisms for the consolidation and mobilization of patriotic-minded youth are patriotic organizations. As a result of content analysis of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation’s information portal, social network pages of patriotic organizations (n = 121) and expert polls of leaders and members of organizations (n = 85), the authors have identified several categories of patriotic activities, which are aimed at the formation of a civic identity and patriotic feelings among young people in the mentioned regions. It was found that in all the regions studied, organizations of a military-patriotic and military-historical orientation, focused on forming a national identity, predominate. The ethnic component in the activity of patriotic organizations is more present in Khakassia and Tuva, however, in general share of patriotic organizations its representation is insignificant. The processes of standardization and unification of methods of work, formats of events and governing structures of these organizations, associated with the majority of youth patriotic organizations coming under the patronage of the federal movement “Yunarmia”, on the one hand, level out local and ethnic identities, and on the other hand, contribute to the formation of a statist model of patriotism among youth.

In Russia, the government’s demand for the patriotic education of young people is constantly growing. However, the content of the programs, their implementation strategies and the prospects for introducing digital technologies into the activities of patriotic youth NGOs remain vague. Based on the analysis of online resources, including the organizations’ social media accounts, the authors conclude that informative content prevails. In addition, they distinguish 4 clusters of non-commercial organizations: Yunarmiyan (Young Army Cadets National Movement), military-athletic, historical and civic, with 60 000 members in total. With the help of TargetHunter parser, the study analyzes social media posts, paying attention to their content and format, the number of posts, likes, comments, viewers and followers. The authors conclude that the level of online involvement has risen as the amount of news traditionally increases in the first quarter of each year, as well as due to the adaptation to the conditions set by the pandemic. The digitalization of patriotic education is complicated and diverse because of the specifics of patriotic organizations, as patriotic content is second to entertainment and educational content on the web.

The article is dedicated to the research of self-presentation and social relations of the youth political leaders in VKontakte (VK) social media in Siberian Federal District by example of Altai krai and Novosibirsk oblast. This includes the analysis of social and political capital of the youth political organisations’ leaders in online environment. The goal of this research is to distinguish the forms and contents of self-presentation, the image of the youth political leaders, basing on their social relations and communications in VK. For this purpose, the author uses the TargetHunter parcer, as well as the R programming language for the open data harvesting, and Gephi program to create the social media graph. Conclusion. Basing on the research results, the author concludes that the youth political leaders actively use social media resources, particularly VK, to shape their image and promote it in public affairs. Meanwhile, the process of self-presentation of such leaders is impacted by numerous variables. It also tends to change its forms. VK is especially effective for political activity of the leaders who strive to gain their personal social capital, to create unique and high quality content, and to create channels for steady communication with their primary audience. As for the youth political organisations’ heads, their social media space is more miscellaneous and is usually subjected to clasterization, creating groups. The youth leaders also represent similar social environment. Therefore, the environment creates the leaders, as much as the leaders create the environment.

This article provides the analysis of migration situation in Russian regions. It also deals with such issue as uneven flows of migration among the regions. Such quantative methods were used to evaluate the factors of migration processes, as correlation, regression, cluster, factor analysis, analysis of variance and GIS analysis. Basing on the results of statistical analysis it was found that the strongest factors that make an impact on migration situation in regions are region’s public image and social-economical profile. Furthermore, six groups of regions were developed based on their migration attraction. The least favorable in terms of this study are “outsider” regions, in which the migration loss is high due to low value of certain variables (this includes Far Eastern District, Siberian District and North Caucasus District). At the same time, there is a rather small group of favorable districts with steady migration flow. Such Districts’ subjects as North-West and South Federal were found to be the center of attraction. Despite the above, most regions of Central Russia are neutral in terms of migration dynamics. It was concluded that social-economic factors such as standards of life and public image of a region (recreational appeal, climate etc.) make a valuable impact on migration attraction of Russian Federation subjects.