Russia's ‘soft power' policy in the countries of Central Asia: an analysis of the methods of ‘people's diplomacy' in the field of education

The relevance of the problem stated in the article is due to the growing importance of applying the methods of 'soft power' in the world, as well as a large number of citizens of Central Asian countries receiving higher education in educational institutions of the Russian Federation. It is also worth noting that this topic is not sufficiently disclosed. In this regard, the purpose of the authors' work is to reveal the topic of Russia's use of levers of indirect influence in relation to the Central Asian republics. The main methods for studying this problem are the methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, synthesis, as well as the empirical method, which allow us to describe the most important aspects of the application of 'soft power' Russian Federation in relation to the countries of Central Asia. The article presents a study of educational quotas for citizens of the Central Asian countries, the dynamics of changes in their number; the concept of 'soft power' is disclosed, the forms of its manifestation are described; the level of development of higher education in the Central Asian countries is considered, the problem of 'diploma factories' is disclosed.