The article discusses the causes and mechanisms for changing the paradigm of world language policy and their consequences for the language education policy of the Russian Federation. The transition from the ethnocultural paradigm to the national-functional, which has already taken place in many multiethnic and multilingual states of the world, was delayed in Russia due to the exaggeration of the uniqueness of the ethnic and cultural composition of the population. However, today both the authorities and the majority of citizens see the use of languages not as a linguistic or political, but as a socioeconomic problem. To equalize the possibilities of different categories of speakers of the Russian language and the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation, four versions of the language model of the Russians are offered, each of which must correspond to its own model of language educational policy.