The article analyzes the evolution of the conceptual foundations of Russian policy to support compatriots living abroad in terms of the strategic priorities of the state after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The problem and relevance of the study are related to the gap between the federal and regional discursive and instrumental approach to compatriots and the policy in relation to them. The discourse on the need to support compatriots and the concept of the "Russian World" is more important for the federal center, while the regions are guided by more pragmatic principles from the point of view of the regional agenda. The aim of the study is to identify the role of Russian regions as subjects of the implementation of policies to support compatriots in the strategic priorities of modern Russia. The source base of the study was archival and published documents at the federal and regional levels. Based on a comparative analysis, the factors of the formation of regional subjectivity in the field of support for compatriots living abroad in the 1990s and 2000s were identified. Intensification of the activities of regions as subjects of the implementation of policies to support compatriots in the 1990s was due to the gap between federal and regional legislation, as well as declared and real policies. In the field of migration, regional subjectivity was of a reactionary nature, and both at a practical and conceptual level was more systematic. Interaction with compatriots outside of Russia was of greater strategic importance for the federal center, while at the regional level it was of a singular nature (both in terms of regional involvement and implementation practices). 2000s years became a period of expanding the instrumental approach by the federal center not only to compatriots as an object of politics, but also to regions as mechanisms of resource support for the achievement of state interests in foreign and domestic political directions. However, despite the rather wide boundaries of regional subjectivity in the areas of support stipulated by federal legislation, it should be noted that regional interests are insufficiently taken into account at the strategic level, in particular in the context of regional development strategic priorities, which is especially evident when implementing the resettlement program for compatriots. The growing role of spatial development issues in the political agenda for the federal center, including in the context of strengthening national security, suggests that the federal center will intensify the use of compatriots' potential by regions, primarily in the migration direction.
