Innovative development of Russia: regional aspect

Regions of Russia differ significantly by their geographical, climatic, resource and other characteristics as well as by the level of innovative development of their economic systems. Low level of the innovative activity of most subjects of the Russian Federation hampers the solution of the strategic task of ensuring the country's economic growth through technological development. Using the methods of comparative and statistical analysis, this paper assesses the degree of differentiation of Russian regions by key indicators of innovative development as well as the impact of regional differentiation on the innovative results achieved. It has been established that the differences between the subjects of the Russian Federation in terms of their innovative development, as well as the concentration of innovative resources and innovative activity in certain regions of the country continue to be quite significant. No trends towards pronounced regional - and -convergence have been revealed. Meanwhile, the policy of concentration of innovative activity in certain regions that are the generators of innovative transformations has proved unsatisfactory. According to most indicators of the country's innovative development strategy for the period up to 2020, the target values have not been achieved. The results of econometric modeling clearly demonstrate that the high degree of differentiation of indicators of innovative development of Russian regions has a negative impact on the dynamics and the results of innovative activity in the country as a whole. Thus, leveling-off of the level of the innovative development of Russian regions and the formation of a single innovation space of the country are important factors for increasing the innovative level of the Russian economy