In response to the decades of violence and instability that have weakened the ties between the North Caucasus and the rest of the Russian Federation, Moscow has gradually implemented a strategy that aims to integrate the region with the rest of the country on a new basis. Creating a new political and economic system is at the core of this policy. But there are other key dimensions too. This project investigates what constitutes the current vision of integration model for the North Caucasus being implemented by national and regional authorities and to what extent elements of this model - separate policies - should be prioritised or amended to ensure sustainable regional peace and prosperity. Building on expert interviews with Yevgeny Ivanov, Marat Iliyasov and six other anonymous experts, this paper engages with matters that somewhat less tangible but no less important for successful integration of the North Caucasus with the rest of the Russian Federation such as discourse and public perception, and accommodation of diversity, e.g., cultural and linguistic uniqueness.