The article examines the evolution of the innovation system in Russia over the past years, based on international data. A comparative analysis of the strengths is carried out and development problems are shown, among which the main attention is paid to the low degree of connectedness of the main actors: science, education, the business sector and the state. In recent years, numerous state initiatives have been undertaken with the purpose to place Russia among the countries - world leaders in the field of science, technology and innovation. The strengths of Russia have been and remain the quality of human capital (secondary and tertiary education) and the knowledge creation (number of researchers, number of patents).Opportunities for transforming generated knowledge into innovative goods and services are limited by the low quality of regulatory and political institutions and weak interaction of individual elements of the innovation system