Cardiovascular disease (CVD) death rates are one of the highest ones in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Nutrition is one of the important factors influencing the health status of the population, including the risk of CVD. Due to the fact that the Kyrgyz Republic has fairly large proportions of ethnic Russian people, this region provides an opportunity to investigate eating habits among different ethnic groups living in the same sociocultural environment. Objective — to investigate the prevalence of individual eating habits among the rural population of the two countries: Russia and the Kyrgyz Republic, by analyzing the ethnic features (according to the data of the Interepid study). Material and methods. This survey was conducted within the framework of the Interepid international survey. The analysis included the results of representative samples of 25—64-year-old rural people from the Volzhsky District, Samara Region (Russia) (n=1050) and the Chui Region (Kyrgyz Republic) (n=1341). Their eating habits were studied using a quantitative food frequency questionnaire estimating the frequency of consumption of key diet-information foods by individual food items. Results. The rate of excess salt intake was high among the surveyed samples. Salt was excessively consumed by 59.4% of the rural residents in the Samara Region and by 42.2% in the Kyrgyz Republic. In the Kyrgyz Republic, the ethnic Russians added salt to foods more often than the native population (45.8 and 39.8% respectively; p<0.05). The rate of inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption was significantly higher in the Samara Region than in the Kyrgyz Republic (64.1 and 47.8% respectively; p<0.01). In the Kyrgyz Republic, this indicator was higher among the indigenous people than among the Russians (53.3 and 42.1% respectively; p<0.05). Inadequate intake of fish products was significantly higher in the representatives of the ethnic Kyrgyz people than in the Russians living in the Kyrgyz Republic (76 and 54.8% respectively; p<0.01). Excessive sugar consumption was registered more frequently among the ethnic Russian people living in the Kyrgyz Republic than among those in the Samara Region (57.1 and 46.1% respectively; p<0.01). No ethnic differences in sugar intake were found in the Kyrgyz Republic. The rate of excessive fat consumption was very high among the residents of the Kyrgyz Republic, with no ethnic differences (92.4 and 96.1% respectively; p>0.05). The indicator was substantially lower in the Samara Region (13.8%; p <0.01). Conclusions. Socioeconomic, cultural, and geographical conditions of long residence in the Kyrgyz Republic have greatly influenced the formation of eating habits in the ethnic Russians. The Russians living in the Kyrgyz Republic have adopted some eating habits (e.g. consumption of animal fat and sugar) from the indigenous population. Ethnic differences have been found in other eating habits (intake of salt, fresh vegetables and fruits, and fish products). There are significant differences in the pattern of all eating habits among the residents of the Samara Region and the representatives of the Russian population long living in the Kyrgyz Republic.