“Concept 2020” and the Lessons of the Crisis Development

Abstract

“The Concept of long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020”, adopted in 2008 (hereinafter - the Concept), reasonably can be considered as one of the most significant - since the beginning of economic reforms in Russia – attempt to form an idea of the long-term prospects for socio-economic development of the country, as well as the necessary steps to ensure the stability of this development. The document is characterized by a systematic vision of the actual and perspective trends in the economic and social development of the country; the desire to use a scenario approach in setting the goals of the Concept; the intention to provide the formulated priorities with the necessary economic resources, institutional and legal innovations. Among these items of fundamental importance is the policy of developing economic and legal mechanism of federal relations and priorities’ setting for the state policy of regional development. After the Concept was adopted (this document is currently listed as valid in all databases), it was changed several times. The nature of these changes is very different, but their general vector is clearly visible: to remove from the document those benchmarks, targets, etc., which quite soon after the adoption of the document appeared to be clearly unattainable. The article discusses some of the key items of the Concept and the reasons why the document was not implemented.