The article author examines the country’s post-Soviet (post-1991) development stages in terms of its both political and economic modernization. The author notes that at the first stage of reforms, the Russian government used a reflected scenario when implementing the reforms while copying the Western development scenario for the most part. Eventually, the government has managed to build an imperfect political and economic model which was rejected by the broad public. In the end, under Putin, it led to the change in the modernization vector. From now on, the government implements the reforms using a relatively balanced, mixed, spontaneously reflected scenario. This is reflected in the transformations of the 2000’s. The author thinks that the key role in Russia’s transition to democracy and in its further development during the 2000’s is played by the country’s establishment whose priority is to identify the strategic development plan for the country (which is often based on its own «selfish» interests). The author also links the transition to innovative development to the interests of the Russian establishment that wishes to become part of the «global joint-stock company». However, the author notes that fairly positive attitudes are observed in the Russian society when it comes to the government innovative projects.