This article considers approaches to the notion of “ethnopolitical conflict” as such have developed in scholarship outside Russia. The author addresses the content of the politicization of the ethnicity process, the complex of causes of ethno-political conflict, the dynamics of the deployment of mobilization processes and the system of resources that promotes the achievement of goals (the concept of “structure of political opportunities” advanced by Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow). There are two major factors that play the role of mobilization “constraints”: an objective time factor - ethnopolitical orientations can dominate in mass attitudes and the people's views for a short period, as a rule, mainly during the exacerbation of intergroup relations - and a subjective factor, characterizing the willingness of political elites to achieve a compromise; the active use of ethno-political rhetoric by political parties, primarily in electoral confrontation; the marginalization of ethnic elites; and the adequate and timely application of conflict confrontation resolution technologies.