In today's world, riddled with globalisation processes and with the aggravation of intercultural, socio-economic, political and other contradictions, the influence of the religious factor is increasing. At different levels of the political process religion can carry both conflicting and stabilising charges. The main factors complicating the use of the stabilisation potential of religion in Russia are the unbalanced religious policy of the state, which does not always make full use of the positive possibilities of the many legally operating religious organisations and its predominant focus on cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church. This, combined with clear pro-government orientations within the Russian Orthodox Church itself, may lead to a decrease in public trust in the institution of the church, since in this case the mass consciousness may partially transfer responsibility for unpopular political, economic or social events to the state institutions.pIn today's world, riddled with globalisation processes and with the aggravation of intercultural, socio-economic, political and other contradictions, the influence of the religious factor is increasing. At different levels of the political process religion can carry both conflicting and stabilising charges. The main factors complicating the use of the stabilisation potential of religion in Russia are the unbalanced religious policy of the state, which does not always make full use of the positive possibilities of the many legally operating religious organisations and its predominant focus on cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church. This, combined with clear pro-government orientations within the Russian Orthodox Church itself, may lead to a decrease in public trust in the institution of the church, since in this case the mass consciousness may partially transfer responsibility for unpopular political, economic or social events to the state institutions./p