The paper presents the author’s vision of the meaning behind the terms: “ethnos”, “ethnicity”, “nation”, “nationality” and the links between them. It is argued that the concepts of “nation” and “nationality” have a sociopolitical connotation, while the notions of “ethnos” and “ethnicity” have a sociocultural one. It is determined that the contemporary native population of St. Petersburg is multinational, but not multiethnic, as the culture it perpetuates on a daily basis is not of their cultural origin, but is built on the traditional Russian culture, including its language, historical and cultural heritage of the ethnic groups of Russia. The authentic multi-ethnicity in St. Petersburg exists due to the current of ethnic migrants from the neighboring countries. A content analysis of the modern media sources indicates that the topic of migration is rarely discussed both in professional and amateur environments. The published materials are scarce, uninformative and are not done for the purpose of creating a multi-ethnic identity of St. Petersburg.