Digital trend in the development of communication between Russia’s authorities and population

In the contemporary information society, the state not only strives for but is often forced to develop a dialogue with citizens in the online space - on websites, portals, apps and social networks that have become an integral part of our everyday life. Personal appeals to officials have become online - instead of spending hours in state institutions, we quickly fill out special forms in electronic “reception rooms”, which gives rise to new forms of dialogue between government bodies and citizens, contributing to the development and improvement of communication channels of interested parties at all levels of social management. Special services and apps allow us to receive government services remotely, ask questions to government representatives, leave complaints, vote for proposed solutions, etc. Within the Russian e-­government model, a transition to an open state model is underway to develop trusting relations between the government and society, but rapid technological innovations also have a downside: the growth of digital inequality, technical failures, a noticeable gap between regions in the level of provided government services. The state aims at implementing large-­scale digitalization projects that will not only improve the quality of life and availability of public services but also develop a dialogue with the population. Therefore, on the one hand, the state needs to identify requests and real communicative and technological capabilities of citizens; on the other hand, citizens needs effective forms of interaction with the state; in both cases, sociological methods (mass surveys, focus groups, content analysis of the media) are in demand, taking into account the pace of communicative and technological processes in different regions and at different levels of government. The article outlines the main aspects (communicative, technical and social) of the sociological analysis of current trends in the digitalization of dialogue between the population and the state in the contemporary Russian society.