AbstractThe paper analyses major importance factors of multicultural education in Russia aimed at the cultural dialogue, reviews answers of the official school policy to challenges of multiculturalism, points to a need to balance interests of the Federal Center and the regions, as an instrument to develop common Russian identity, the Russian “super-ethnos”. The ideas of ethno-cultural (ethno-pedagogy) and multicultural (poly-cultural) education, as being developed by Russian experts, the practices of international education and the threats to international dialogue in the Russian-society education are presented also