The article justifies the importance of unbiased assessment and management of «foreign politicians’ images» in the minds of Russian citizens for solving various political tasks - domestic and foreign. The authors consider the content of the concept “foreign politicians’ images”; the main components of these images, peculiarities of their formation and perception by Russian citizens under conditions of wide use of information and telecommunication technologies; the “information redundancy” of the life environment of most people; the “information competition” between the various types of information and sources that are potentially available to them. From the perspective of the interests of various groups of legal entities and individuals (Russian and foreign), the goals and methods (technologies) of managing the formation of «political leaders’ images» from leading countries have been studied; ensuring the stability of perception of these images over time; “promotion” of information about these political leaders in the information space; ensuring its publicity, accessibility and demand among Russian citizens. The paper analyzes the following issues related to an increased use of the information and telecommunication technologies on the subject matter: change in volumes, structure and characteristics of information about political leaders from leading foreign countries in the information space, especially the Russian - language space; factors that have an effect on the need for this information in Russia; an ability to manage the structure and volumes of information about the leaders of foreign countries, coming to Russian citizens; peculiarities of their perception of such information, its consideration in the processes of formation, adjustment and use of these politicians images. It is shown that images of foreign countries leaders are formed under the influence of the following factors: topic-related composition, content, tone and volumes of information - previously accumulated and newly arriving; the approaches of different categories of citizens to the assessment of this information and its use, taking into account their age, affiliation to a certain socio - economic and / or ethno - confessional group, education level and profile, some other indicators
