The article contains an analysis of the Russian knowledge-based economy at the meso-economic (regional) level in the period from 2005 to 2015. Authors assess the main parameters of the development of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, including the regional innovation system and the education system, ICT infrastructure and environmental conditions of life. It has been proven that the background of the knowledge-based economy in Russia (ICT and the ecological environment) is characterized by a converging trend, and the core of the knowledge-based economy (the educational system and the innovation system) is characterized by a divergent trend. Differentiation of education systems in the Russian regions increases during 10 years of analysis, therefore, the ability of peripheral regions to switch to knowledge-intensive is steadily decreasing. The gap between leaders and outsiders (the overwhelming majority of regions) of the development of a regional innovation system is maximum. Authors conclude that the preservation of a liberal-oriented meso-economic policy in Russia will contribute to the formation of an asymmetric model of the knowledge-based economy.

The purpose of the study is to substantiate the need and the possibility of diversification of the Russian regional economic system, including resources-extractive regions, in the form of a gradual transformational transition to the knowledge economy. The research is conducted on the basis of systematic approach. The work resulted in the selection of a new transformation model of the regional economic system, i.e. diversification based on the development of the knowledge economy, with the diversification index for this model being proposed. Besides, the positive impact of the level of development of the knowledge economy in the region on the diversification of its economic structure was proved and the increase in the level of diversification of the economy of the resource-extractive region with the development of the knowledge economy infrastructure was confirmed. The scope of practical application of the results is the development of regional socio-economic policy on the basis of the proposed approach to the diversification of the regional economic system in the process of its long-term transformation towards the establishment of the knowledge economy.

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The process of adaptation of the Russian education system to the market principles was rather chaotic and resulted in a number of system problems. For instance, business organizations have distanced themselves from the education of qualified personnel on the basis of state educational institutions. The article features some results of a theoretical research of interaction between the state structures and firms, its specifics and prospects in the sphere of Russian education. The analysis showed that the term "social partnership" was replaced with the term "public-private partnership" as the main concept for interactions between education organizations and firms in Russia in the last 20 years. It reveals a transition from the ethical to the rational-economical argumentation of the participation of firms in the social sphere. In the absence of institutional mechanisms, the most effective model of interaction between educational institutions and firms seems to be the one based on individual economic profits for both sides.