The object of this scientific research is state-confessional relations at the federal and regional levels, as well as the relationship between local governments and religious organizations and law enforcement practice. Sects and cults can be studied from the point of view of sociology, history, religious studies, psychology. But if such a phenomenon as sects and cults is present in public life, it must also be properly regulated by legal norms. The subject of the study is regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation and the subjects of the Russian Federation, as well as municipal legal acts regulating various aspects of the activities of religious organizations. Since 1997, the Federal Law "On Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations" (hereinafter – Federal Law No. 125-FZ) has been in force in Russia. If we analyze the legislation that regulates public relations in the sphere of the realization of the right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, as well as the legal status of religious organizations, then, in our opinion, one of the problems that, despite its undoubted relevance, has not received due attention from the domestic legislator to date, is the problem of the use of terms "(totalitarian) sect", "(destructive) cult". Along with the formal legal method, such methods of scientific cognition as induction, deduction, hypothesis, analogy were used in the preparation of the study. In addition, typology, classification and systematization were used as auxiliary methods.The scientific novelty of the research is a comprehensive analysis of the legal regulation of the activities of "new religious organizations", synonymous with the concepts of "(totalitarian) sect", "(destructive) cult" in everyday life, and sometimes in normative legal acts. As the main result of the research undertaken, the author suggests specific measures for both point-by-point changes in the current legislation and complex changes in the model of state-confessional relations as a whole.