The article discusses the economic cooperation of the member-states within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The SCO was originally established as an organization aimed at ensuring security in the region and countering the "three evils"-terrorism, extremism and separatism. However, over time, the economic direction began to play a bigger role in relations among countries. The authors analyze various areas of economic cooperation and conclude that the main axis of the development of economic relations within the organization is the cooperation between Russia and China.

The Russian energy market is one of the most developed in the world; and Russia is one of the biggest oil and gas exporters. The market transition to alternative energy and shale oil is very slow and insignificant. The modernization of the energy market dictates the needs to change the national markets. In this regard, the discussion of the alternative energy and shale oil development in Russia is very important. The authors attempt to reveal the key factors, contributing to such a situation in Russia and to estimation of the economic effects of the implementation of the new energy sources on the country's energy market. The main finding of the paper is that the majority of energy consumers in Russia will suffer in terms of finances from the alternative energy development and shale oil extraction.