Abstract: The article presents the results of the analysis of the fundamental documents of the migration policy of the Russian Federation of the last 30 years, the purpose of which was to identify changes in the fundamental approaches of the authorities in relation to migration and the corresponding legal and institutional changes. An array of normative legal acts of the Russian Federation from 1989 to 2023 (about 100 documents), concepts of migration policy, materials of speeches by the Head of State, meetings of various interdepartmental commissions and high-level profile working groups were used as sources. The study used comparative legal analysis; content analysis; synchronous analysis; general logical approaches and methods. The obtained results allowed us to identify seven stages of the evolution of the Russian migration policy. The boundaries in which the "fluctuation of the course" of migration policy occurs are determined. It is shown that the priorities that the migration policy should correspond to are equally significant, but competing, which leads to inconsistency of the measures taken. It is noted that in recent years, migration policy has been increasingly using adaptive management technologies, which contains risks for long-term goal-setting. The definition of the concept "limits of policy variability" is given. It is concluded that it is necessary to develop a long-term Strategy of the state migration policy, which will take into account the systemic nature of the phenomenon of migration and the multilevel effects that arise as a result of the impact on the migration situation.