Aim: to investigate relationship between arterial hypertension (AH) and risk factors/subclinical damage of target organs in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). Methods. We included into this clinical epidemiological study 528 patients with DM2 (30.5% men, 69.5% women; mean age 54.1 +/- 0.3 years; 80.3% with AH, 19.7% without AH), who answered questions of the ARIC study questionnaire related to risk factors. Also, we studied features of target organ damage and laboratory indicators. Results. In comparison with normotensives patients with AH more frequently had ischemic heart disease (12.7 +/- 1.6% vs. 5.8 +/- 2.3%, p<0.05), chronic heart failure (CHF) (30.9 +/- 2.2% vs. 9.6 +/- 2.9%, p<0.001), atherosclerosis of vessels of lower extremities (69.8 +/- 2.2% vs. 53.8 +/- 4.9%, p<0.01) and cerebral vessels (50.9 +/- 2.4% vs. 28.8 +/- 4.4%, p<0.001), history of stroke (5.0 +/- 1.1% vs. 0%, p<0.05), hypertonic angiopathy (14.5 +/- 1.8% vs. 6.5 +/- 2.5%, p<0.05), low level of high density lipoprotein (87.3 +/- 2.2% vs. 74.5 +/- 6.4%, p<0.05), electro- and echocardiographic signs of left ventricular hypertrophy (75.6 +/- 2.1% vs. 45.4 +/- 5.1%, p<0.001; 61.1 +/- 2.6% vs. 24.4 +/- 4.7%, p<0.001, respectively), lowering of left ventricular ejection fraction (12.5 +/- 1.7% vs. 7.8 +/- 2.8%, p<0.001), diastolic disfunction of the left ventricle (52.6 +/- 2.7% vs. 23.2 +/- 4.7%, p<0.001), atherosclerosis of the aorta (38.0 +/- 2.6% vs. 20.7 +/- 4.5%, p<0.01), lowering of the ankle-brachial index (left - 29.8 +/- 2.3% vs. 14.9 +/- 3.5%, p<0.01; right - 31.5 +/- 2.3% vs. 9.9 +/- 3.0%, p<0.001, respectively), increased intima-media thickness of the right carotid artery (84.6 +/- 5.0% vs. 60.0 +/- 11.0%, p<0.05). Conclusion. In patients with type 2 diabetes and AH, in order to develop strategy of macro- and microvascular complications prevention, it is necessary to conduct early screening of risk factors and subclinical damage of target organs.