Key steps to smart specialization development of Russian regions

Relevance. The development of modern mechanisms for state regulation of regional processes, including those related to investment support for certain industries (e.g. the Spatial Development Strategy in Russia), requires a research-informed choice of ‘priority’ specializations. At the same time, such choice should meet the requirement of resilient economic development of these regions if the development of these specializations is supported on the national level. Research objective. The goal of this study is to assess the current structure of the Russian regions’ economy. We aim to identify the regions that have a specialization and thus can ensure resilient development and transition to smart specialization. Data and Methods. The study proposes a methodological approach to identify the region’s smart specialization. The approach is based on the calculation of indicators that characterize the regions’ industries according to Russia’s national classifier of types of economic activity (OKVED2). Regions with pronounced industrial specialization are thus identified. The methodological approach has been tested by using statistical data for 84 regions. Results. 43 regionswith industrial, export-oriented and extractive specialization were identified. We revealed nineregions that had sufficient prerequisites for the transition tosmart specialization and 11 regions that need to strengthen their knowledge-intensive component. Conclusions. The resulting list of Russian regions that can act as pioneer territories for the introduction of structural changes into the practice of state regulation can be of interest to policy-makers.