The article analyzes problems related to processes of Russia’s political self-determination in the modern world, as well as internal and external factors influencing these processes. As is demonstrated, the choice by Russian society and by its political elite, of the general direction of internal development and of foreign policy is to a great extent determined by such factors as the system of basic values, social and political institutions, correlation of forces between different centers of political force, e. a. In this connection, the tendency now observed, of Russia’s keeping certain distance from the USA and the European Union, is not by chance. It is determined both by essential differences in the systems of basic values and orientations and by quickly changing statuses of this or that state or states in the modern world. At the same time, the article contains a forecast of probable voluntary or involuntary rapprochement of the positions of Russia and of the countries of the West in the period of 2012 to 2020. This rapprochement will be most likely conditioned by China’s strengthening, by degradation of controllability in the system of international relations, by the situation in the Middle East becoming more unstable, and by other factors.