The goal of this article is to consider the ethnic identity and interethnic guidelines of the population of Belarus
and Russia. The authors conducted empirical studies among the residents of the Republic of Belarus and
Krasnodar territory (the Russian Federation) to find out whether people there are ready for interethnic contacts
and interactions in various life spheres and how the population of these the two countries perceives the
representatives of other ethnic groups. Ethnic identity is considered as an element of the social identity structure
which also includes other types of identity (socio-cultural, civil, religious, age-related, etc.).