Russian psychiatry has a dramatic history, and until now has been at a transitional stage of development. It is facing problems not only common in world psychiatry, but also specific to eastern Europe, in particular Russia. Starting from the beginning of the 1990s, considerable changes have occurred in psychiatry, especially after 1992 when the law on psychiatric care and guarantees of citizens' rights in its provision was adopted. It became the ideological and legislative basis for reforms. However, there are definite obstacles to structural reforms in psychiatry. They are unfavourable technical conditions in many psychiatric clinics, hypercentralization of psychiatric services, shortage of clinical psychologists and social workers in psychiatry, some difficulties in cooperation between psychiatric and general medical institutions. Economic difficulties in the transition period of Russia's social development prevent the overcoming of these problems. They are being actively discussed and some of them are being gradually solved, e.g. the organization of team work in mental health services, the increasing number of specialists on social work, and the involvement of non-government organizations in psychosocial rehabilitation.