The article considers the controversial question of the applicability of the concept of “soft power” in respect to contemporary Russia and its foreign policy. Under this angle of view, the author undertakes logical and methodological analysis of the concept. Such an analysis is necessary for its transformation from a metaphorical concept into an operational analytical term. There are some semantic constraints in the current use of this concept, so the author suggests it’s wider interpretation, which allows introducing some important factors of political influence that are usually not taken into account in publications devoted to the analysis of “soft” impacts. The author emphasizes the need to investigate “reverse effects” of political and ideological influence that can be stretched with changing their modality. The author argues that soft power is built in the form of a certain contextually determined structure with a variable configuration. The key element of this structure, defining its unique profile and internal coherence, is the ability to “establish the meaning”. From this perspective, the article considers the question of the presence / absence of “soft power” in Russian politics. The author answers in the broad context opening alternative options of socio-historical development. In this connection, the author dwells on the prospects of the so-called post-human civilization actively discussed in some expert circles, but also on the dehumanizing tendencies inherent in the latest political technologies. The article supposes that Russia now stands objectively as a factor keeping the history on “human path.”