The problems of the steady and coordinated socio-economic development of some regions and the country on the whole are more than ever relevant on the present stage of development of Russia as an equal and stable member of the international community. Until recently the priority in the regions’ development was given to the economic component. On the whole, the socio-economic development of the regions significantly depends on the state regional management that assumes the regulation of the regions’ economic and social development with the help of active regional policy. The main aims of such regulation are: the consolidation of the state unity and integrity; the overcoming of the significant differences between the regions in the factors development, living standard, suppression of regional separatism, maximizing the potential of the international exchange, creation of the prerequisites for the regions’ self-development and functioning without subsidies. Federal regional programmes which are financed on the basis of equity from the federal budget are the forms of the direct state participation in the regulation of the regions’ development. The questions of the economic development of the regions of the Russian Federation are the most important and strained problems of the economic and social development. The current economic situation leads to the necessity of revision of approaches to the regional problems solving on the part of both the public authorities – the development of adequate regional policy, and the regions – the development of tools of measures that allow to pursue the effective regional policy, attracting investments and implementing development of the territory within the innovate development leaning on the resource potential use. The article’s applicability is determined by the important role that is designated by the Russian Government among the main (of top priority) directions of socio-economic development of the regions. Among the priority direction of the long-term development of Russia are the reduction of differences in levels of the socio-economic development of the regions by means of a decrease in the number of the Russia’s subjects whose socio-economic development is below average on the one hand. On the other hand, the main role is in the strategy of the economic development of Russia that was set out in the conception of the long-term socioeconomic development of Russia until 2020