Russia’s innovation system: reflection on the past,present and future

The current situation concerning science and innovation in Russia cannot be understood without an explanation and examination of the legacy of the Soviet period. The focus of the paper is evaluation of the pre-conditions for developing the national innovation system in Russia as well as current state of science and technology systems with a particular focus on the development of small business sector in the economy. The paper suggests that over the last two decades Russia’s science system was able to maintain its innovation capacity in terms quality of research. At the same time, the innovation absorption capacity of industrial enterprises remains low while technology-based entrepreneurship failed to generate significant economic impact. The paper stress that the challenge of building the national innovation system is in creating environment that enable effective transfer of the results of research activities into development of new product and processes