[en] Potential energies, moments of inertia, quadrupole and octupole moments of dinuclear systems are compared with the corresponding quantities of strongly deformed nuclei. As dinuclear system we denote two touching nuclei (clusters). It is found that the hyperdeformed states of nuclei are close to those of nearly symmetric dinuclear systems, whereas the superdeformed states are considered as states of asymmetric dinuclear systems. The superdeformed and hyperdeformed states constructed from two touching clusters have large octupole deformations. The experimental measurement of octupole deformation of the highly deformed nuclei can answer whether these nuclei have cluster configurations as described by the dinuclear model