  The talk is devoted to the problem of stability of the Standard Model vacuum.
The effective potential for the Higgs field, which can potentialy exhibit
additional, deeper minimum, is considered as a convenient tool for addressing
the problem. Different methods and approximations used to calculate the
potential are considered. Special attention is paid to the renomalization-group
approach that allows one to carry out three-loop analysis of the problem. By
means of an explicit gauge-independent procedure the absolute stability bounds
on the observed Higgs and top-quark masses are derived. The importance of
high-order corrections is demonstrated. In addition, potential metastablity of
the SM is discussed together with modifications of the analysis due to some New
Physics.
