The article is dedicated to the chances of Russia to make an economic and technological «breakthrough», the imperativeness of which, as rightly emphasized by the Russian authorities, never ceases to grow. In the contemporary world, which becomes more and more competetive, Russia without such a «breakthrough», according to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, risks «falling behind forever». The need for the «breaktrough» is dictated by alarming demographic trends, a decrease in the number of labour force. To this connexion, the article considers the situation in the country with the factors that make the economy susceptible to innovation and new technologies. There is the question, namely, of competition, high cost of the workplace, free re-entrepreneurship ininiative. The state of social cohesion of society, without which it is impossible to ensure a sustainable high-quality development of the economy, is analized. The problem of flexibility of the political system, and its ability to create conditions for economic reforms that meet the challenges of the time, is also touched upon. By all these factors Russia is significantly inferior to the advanced countries. In its economy, the weight of the state is too large, which already impedes the development of small and medium-sized businesses. The administrative and corruption pressure of the bloated bureaucracy and law enforcement agencies further aggravates the difficulties of this sector. In general, the economic initiative and independent innovation activity, contrary to the declared intentions, is not encouraged, but suppressed by the Russian system. The wages and pensions in Russia are in order of magnitude lower than in Western states. Particularly disturbing is the social marginalization of the scientists and the resulting «brain drain» abroad. The widening gap between the poor and the rich undermines the already weak social cohesion of the society. The political system, because of its excessive rigidity, does not allow the living forces of the society to participate in the modernization processes. The final part of the article addresses the issue of reforms, without which the economic and technological «breaktrough» is unlikely to take place. It is especially noted that these reforms will require, on one hand, a great political will and, on the other hand, pudence.
«economic and technological breathrough»; competetiveness; social cohesion; flexibility of the political system.