Russian Economy Development Features Determined by the Change in Technological Structures
Authors:   Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Moscow, Russian Federation), Serebrennikov Sergey S. 
Published: February 2021

The article examines the features of the Russian economy development in modern conditions as determined by the change in technological structures. The reason for this is the fact that one of the key factors influencing the transformation of the economy is the factors of scientific and technological progress adapting to the dominant technological order, which, in turn, has certain features: production technology, management, resource consumption, energy sources and others. This article uses the generally accepted four-phase model of the cycle, despite the existing viewpoints on it as a schematic and simplified approach. The sixth technological order (based on N. Kondratyev’s long wave theory, S.Yu. Glazyev assumed it began in 2010) is characterized by the introduction of cyber-physical systems into all spheres of social life. The most pronounced deviations from the mainstream – driven by the change in technological structures – in the development of the Russian economy are noted. General indicators and groups of indicators are analyzed, namely: the share of innovative products in GDP; the share of the “digital economy” turnover in GDP; the share of people employed in knowledgeintensive/digital industries in the total number of people employed in the economy; number and dynamics of international patents in the digital sphere, including in the context of crosscountry comparisons, etc. The analysis shows that there is a systemic crisis in the national economy and proves that the persistence of backlogs is the main threat to the national and economic security of the country. At the same time, world rankings of states in the field of innovations and science-intensive technologies, as well as Russian scientific and educational systems’ participation in such rankings can help in understanding the situation with the role of the national economy and with the lagging behind in global technological trends. Today, according to these ratings, only a small part of Russian universities meet the criteria of competitiveness. The so-called “brain drain” problem is added to the problem of lagging in innovative development: the Russian Federation is one of the world leaders (in a negative context, among countries with a comparable GDP level) in the field. However, the problem of leakage of highly qualified, primarily scientific and technical specialists, is typical for emerging economies, especially at the transformational stage. The scale of the “brain drain” cannot be measured accurately enough: for example, in all states that apply agreements on dual citizenship,accounting for external migration of scientific and technical personnel is objectively difficult.Another problem is low labor productivity. The problem is systemic and complex, as in many other cases of the observed lagging of the national economy behind world leaders since the Soviet period. However, universal solutions in the field of labor motivation, incentives to increase labor productivity have still not been found in the domestic practice. Western practices do not take root due to the inconsistency/underestimation of domestic cultural traditions and workers’ mentality, and the adaptation of such techniques is very difficult. Overcoming the existing deviations is seen as a nationwide task, the solution of which requires the unification of efforts of the state, the business community, the scientific and educational world.