THE ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS: FEATURES OF DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING IN RUSSIA.

The international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a noticeable role in world politics, being important actors in international relations. The paper seeks to examine the roles that non-state organizations play in Russia and analyze specific features of their functioning institutions and mechanisms of interaction with the national government. The paper uses historical comparative analysis methods to show, how nongovernmental organizations are being developed and major trends of NGOs activity in Russia. The questions discussed are: how non-governmental organizations affect civil society development and what role do they have in Russian political process? Whether international public actors remained faithful to its historical mission, can they continue to work without external influence? The paper sought to analyze and discuss the NGO phenomenon through a prism of the Russian reality. Nowadays the interaction of civil society with the government in Russia still has inconsistent character. There is a certain skepticism concerning true intentions of the power to adjust equal dialogue and cooperation with institutes of civil society represented by non-governmental organizations. The author outlined the role of public diplomacy for successful positioning of the country through the activity of public actors in the Russian state. Financing NGOs activity, foreign organizations receive additional "agents of influence" on the political situation in the country. Thereby NGOs are transformed from "agents of loyalty" into "agents of influence". That tendency raises fears of the state and leads to the need for legislative regulation. In conclusion, the sector of NGOs in Russia, as well as civil society, is not developed and being formed. The problems, that the state, public actors and civil society should solve, need strengthening of national strategy, scientific research and legislative support NGOs ways of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]