At present, Russia faces a strategically important task of accelerating the pace of transition to an innovative type of development, which is largely determined by the effectiveness of the organization of the innovation process and the formation of the innovation potential. The category of «innovation potential» is a characteristic of the state of the innovation environment and it is closely related to the level of development of the national innovation system, since it defines the basic prerequisites for the progressive growth of innovative production. The article is devoted to the study of systemic problems, arising in the Russian economy and impeding the realization of the innovation potential. Of great methodological and practical importance is the application in the research of the innovative development of scientifically based concepts and methodological tools. In order to substantiate innovative trends, the research is based on theories of technological frame, global evolutionism and synergetic. The main conclusion is that the regression in innovative development is possible and its overcoming requires the implementation of the effective state policy. This creates the conditions under which self-organization processes may occur, coupled with positive evolutionary changes. The author gives a comparative assessment of the most important national and regional economic indicators, published by Rosstat and reflecting the situation with regional innovation systems. Low innovation activity in the Russian economy is explained by the fact that the process of innovation growth slows down to a large extent at the regional level. According to statistics data, the dynamics of indicators, characterizing innovative production, indicates at the innovative stagnation with some signs of economic growth.

The article discusses the theoretical aspects of program-target management and the specific features of its application to the economic development of the Arctic zone. The capabilities of the program-targeted management methodology are fully realized only in the case of clear understanding of the expected results, correct definition of goals and objectives, as well as the necessary resources. Otherwise, the method leads to inefficient spending of time and resources. Analysis of the acting version of the state program “Social and economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025” showed that the indicators, planned for the achievement, do not correspond to the goals and objectives of the Program. It was assumed that the specification of activities and financial resources, allocated for these purposes, is reflected in three subprogrammes, which, according to the logic of the document, are designed to ensure the solution of the tasks of the Arctic Program in the framework of the implementation of the main goal. However, the study of the subprogram of the formation of reference zones showed the absence of specific mechanisms for the development of this institution, and the analysis of the subprogram of the development of the Northern Sea Route revealed a lack of mechanisms for solving the problem of increasing the cargo traffic. Regarding the implementation of the subprogram of creating equipment and technologies for oil and gas and industrial engineering, there are no answers to the question of its role in the economic development of the Arctic. The authors concluded that the Arctic program was of a purely departmental nature.

In the present study, it is proposed to re-evaluate the modern role of million-plus cities in the socio-economic development of countries, basing not only on the universally recognized concept of urbanization (the theory of differential urbanization), but also on the theories, developed in recent years in other areas of scientific thought. The author argues that at the current stage of the world economy development, the largest cities are the points of growth due to a number of factors, including the best conditions for the formation of clusters, the transformation into global cities, the development of the creative class, the transfer of implicit knowledge. Thanks to these advantages, the largest cities with their suburbs become centers of innovative development and continue to concentrate highly qualified personnel. On the basis of statistical data on Germany, the article shows started in mid-2000s concentration of the population in the million-plus cities, the growth of the share of the population in densely populated areas with the reduction of the population, living in sparsely populated areas. The author comes to the conclusion that the increasing role of million-plus cities is an integral characteristic of the current stage of post-industrial society development, so the lack of conditions for their sustainable socio-economic development can cause a slowdown in the economic growth of the country. This fact, however, does not negate the need to implement public policies, aimed at reducing interregional differences in the level of socio-economic development. It is also proposed to supplement the Russian statistics with indicators, reflecting the differentiation of the territories by population density.

The article considers significant modern concepts of social and ethical basis of modernization of the Russian economy. The success of modernization largely depends on the coordination between transformations in the economy, on the one hand, and in society, on the other hand. The existing system of values, the peculiarities of the Russian mentality and the peculiarities of the current stage of modernization generate some points, insufficient attention to which limits the possibility of implementing adopted programs and strategies. The decrease in the quality of life of the population, observed today, has a negative impact on social well-being and leads to the deterioration of socio-ethical conditions of modernization. The increasing conflicts’ situation and in some cases the mood of confrontation call for more ethic market transformations. At the time, when Russian society is characterized with economic determinism, the system of regulation of the Russian economy and the Russian society as a whole requires certain moral reorientation. The achievement of social peace is a necessary prerequisite for the modernization. The solution of this problem, among other items, involves full municipal social life, associated with the process of self-organization of local communities, the inclusion into the system of ethical attitudes of Russian society such values, as solidarity, complicity, self-organization and self-government.

Economic and historical features of the development of Moscow and the Moscow region have put their mark on the organization of the system of administrative management. The existence of Moscow and the Moscow Region as different subjects of the Russian Federation and the fulfillment by them of various roles and functions, on the one hand, and the trend towards integration and unification of Moscow and the Moscow Region within one macroregion, on the other hand, create contradictions in their interests and cause difficulties in developing a unified approach to the solution of actual economic tasks. The problems of ecology and garbage removal, hypertrophied pendulous migration and transport, forest resources’ management and water supply, which are of paramount importance both for Moscow and for the Moscow region, can be solved only on the basis of combining administrative efforts designed to develop a unified planning system for the development of this macroregion.

Over the past three years, the number of participatory budgeting projects, implemented in the regions of Russia, has more than tripled, and it proves the relevance of this form of citizens’ involvement in local self-government. However, such practices are developing in our country in the situation of absence of fundamental legislative regulation. In 2017-2018 there is an active discussion about the need of legal regulation of participatory budgeting and about the limits of regulatory impact over those practices. The article discusses the situation with participatory budgeting practices in Russia and the perspective of its legislative regulation. Basing of the point of view of law-making theory, the author analyzes bills, drafted by Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, aimed to regulate participatory budgeting practices. Using the data of legislative practices of the subjects of the Russian Federation, the author proves the conclusion that due to dispositive nature of Russian municipal law, the legislative regulation of participatory budgeting practices is necessary in case, if it sets imperative rules for authorities in the given sphere and guarantees of the rights of citizens for the participation in the budget process.

The Russian tax legislation provides various forms of tax control. Today tax audit acts as the most effective form of tax control. The article reveals the major questions, connected with the cameral and offsite tax audits, which are capable to exert impact both on replenishment of regional budgets and of the federal budget in general. The paper provides the characteristic of new control systems for the replenishment of regional budgets. Besides, in article considers the public criteria of independent assessment of risks for taxpayers, used by tax bodies for conducting offsite tax audits.

The article provides the analysis of the existing risks of the draft federal budget of Russia for 2019 and the planed period of 2020 and 2021. The paper gives the assessment of new approaches and tools, incorporated in the draft of federal budget in order to stimulate economic growth. Special attention is paid to assessing the impact of the key balancing mechanism of the federal budget — the budget rule — on the concept of the Russian budget policy. The authors show that the current model of budget rule preserves the existing design of the federal budget parameters, aimed at consolidating budget resources and creates the risks of a low impact of the budget expenditures on the factors of economic growth in Russia, and therefore the risks of a natural sustainable increase in federal budget revenues through the implementation of these factors. According to the authors’ view, the way out of this situation is a comprehensive reconfiguration of the budget policy towards targeted stimulation of growth factors via changing its concept as a whole and not only of its individual instruments.

Tax and budget policy in recent years has been characterized by tight financial consolidation. On the background of the risks of reducing the volume of oil and gas revenues, including due to the so-called “tax maneuver”, new mandatory payments have been introduced, the fiscal burden on business and the population has increased. Simultaneously budget expenditures are being compressed in real terms. Thus, the recession of 2015—2016 and the weak recovery of growth are enhanced by the implementation of a restraining policy. Draft Federal budget for 2019 and the planning period 2020 and 2021 also carries these trends. The article deals with the provisions, which increase the risks of shortfall in tax revenues both by the Federal budget and the budgets of the subjects of the Federation due to the innovations, laid down in the bill. At the same time, there is excessive caution in predicting the price of oil and, as a consequence, the volume of oil and gas revenues. The analysis of the expenditure part of the Federal budget shows, however, some change of the trend. Despite a modest increase in total spending, expenditures on health, education and infrastructure have increased significantly. Thus, the structure of budget expenditures is changing in favour of expenditures with investment potential. Simultaneously the article shows that the policy of increasing public debt on the background of the planned budget surplus increases the risks of public debt management in the medium and long term period.

In modern conditions of dynamically developing scientific and technical progress, the role of technological factor in ensuring the competitiveness of the domestic economy and its sustainable development becomes crucial. Accordingly, the role and the importance of the scientific and technological aspect in ensuring sustainable socio-economic and industrial development of the regions is growing. In turn, the realization of the tasks of structural and technological modernization of the Russian economy, taking into account the priorities of scientific and technological development, increases the need to procure a systematic approach to the formation and the conducting of technological and industrial policy at the sectoral and regional levels, the tool of which should be strategic planning. The issues of interfacing sectoral and regional aspects of scientific, technological and industrial policy within the system of state strategic planning are considered in this article.

The article discusses the issue of various approaches to the regulation of retail pricing in the markets of motor fuels. The author conducted a comparative analysis of retail pricing systems for petroleum products in Russia and in the European Union countries. The pricing system in the Russian fuel retail sector has mostly failed and now it’s facing a crisis situation. Its main disadvantages are opacity, incompatibility with the wholesale market, high level of regulations’ impact and a low level of adaptability to various external shocks. As counterweight, the article proposes positive examples of soft regulations in Austria and in Germany – the countries with the liberal pricing regimes. In the world of Big Data the fundamentally new opportunities could be opened up, which allow to overcome many typical economic problems. IT platforms reduce the level of information asymmetry, increase market competitiveness and pricing transparency. In the context of the attitude towards increasing digitalization and the crisis situation in the Russian fuel industry, it is extremely important to analyze the systems, built on the above described principles and start actively usage of the of Big Data capabilities.

Among the models of catching-up modernization, typical for Russia of the second half of XIX — beginning of XXI centuries, are distinguished: the model of least resistance, mobilization, hybrid and transformational models. They are characterized both by common features and by quality originality, due to the peculiarities of the modernization process. The most important factor in their formation and transformation were the changes in the economic policy of the state, largely due to changes in the socio-economic system and external challenges. The implementation of the model of catching up modernization is possible in contemporary Russia, but it must be complemented by policies, which ensure catch-up postindustrialization.

Due to the instability of the national development model, which provides a significant share of the raw materials’ component in both GDP and exports, in Russia at the end of the 2000s the elaboration of several new strategic development directions was launched. One of them was the direction “International cooperation and export”, involving the export of education. The article discusses the role of education in the socio-economic development of the country, identifies the prerequisites, stipulated the need to expand the export potential of the national education system. The author analyzes the goals, objectives and possible mechanisms for expanding the exports of Russian education for the period till 2025. Also the paper defines the factors, which determine the choice of foreign citizens of the country and the university for receiving education. As well the paper concerns possible directions for expanding the export of education by Russian universities in the context of improving the competitiveness of their educational and research activities. Basing on the data on the expenses of foreign students, it is assumed that the expansion of the export of education for regional universities can create the basis for the formation of a new investments’ attractive branch in the regions of the Russian Federation.

The massive reduction of the number of banks, registered in the country, has led to enormous structural changes in the level of provision of banking services in the regions of Russia. Major federal banks should replace weak regional credit institutions. However, the results of this common for the Russian Federation process differ, depending on the region. The authors have identified some Russian regions, where banks’ restructuring does not affect entrepreneurial activity. Moreover, survived local banks render successful competition to the federal players. In most regions of the Russian Federation, the restructuring of the banking system exposed the problem of reducing of the lending to small and medium-sized businesses. Weakening of regulatory requirements for banks with a basic license, starting in 2019, will help to solve this problem.

In order to increase the efficiency of state procurement, the cooperative procurement has been recently activity implemented. Such type of procurement is carefully considered in a separate article of the Federal Law No. 44-FZ “On Contract systems in the sphere of procurement of goods, services and works for provisioning governmental and municipal needs”, dated 05.04.2013. According to art. 25 of the Law, competitive tenders and auctions are conducted in case two or more customers’ demand for identical goods, services and works. However, The Unified Procurement Information System is daily flooded by a great number of customers’ notices of procurement for similar (identical) products and mass-production goods. In addition, in contrast to “individual” procurement, cooperative procurement is characterized by a larger scope of purchased goods, services and works, and, correspondently, higher value. This encourages competition and allows to involve more producers and major suppliers to the procurement, as possible risks of improper performance of contract obligations are minimized. The current legislation on the contact systems does not put any constraints on the nomenclature of goods, services and works purchased in cooperative tenders and the initial (maximum) price of the contract concluded on the final results of cooperative activities. The principles of organizing cooperative tenders and auctions make it possible to considerably reduce the administrative burden on the customers and finally ensure substantial budget savings. However, high economic efficiency is hindered by considerable expenses, connected with organizing procurement. In this view, trading strategies, implemented in the Ryazan region, definitely deserve careful attention. These strategies are aimed at reducing time, labour and financial expenditures, at conducting cooperative tenders and auctions by means of digitizing. The present article provides description and results of applying trading strategies in the Ryazan region. The method, described in the article, is currently important and can be successfully implemented in other subjects of the Russian Federation while setting a new course for improving cooperative procurement.

Electronic physical evidences represent a special group of physical evidences. They have their own characteristics, knowledge of which makes it possible to use them more effectively in criminal proceeding. The article considers the procedure for the seizure of electronic media as evidence in criminal cases. Among the most important problematic aspects of determining the place of electronic media in the evidences’ system there is the problem of the legal nature, normative definition and the use of “electronic” evidences in criminal procedure.