Research of features of financial and legal incentives of investment activities in the regions. Methodological basis of the study raised issues were the following: general scientific methods of cognition generalization, analogy, analysis and synthesis, elaboration, comparison, logical method, etc. Conducted interdisciplinary analysis of literature and sources on stimulating investment activities, with particular emphasis given to the Institute financial and legal incentives. Formed the author's definition of the term ʼfinancial and legal stimulus of investment activity of regionsʼ. Studied types of financial and legal incentives of investment activities of the regions. Analyzed regional legislation and judicial practice on the subject of study places financial incentives in the legal field of regional legislation. Identified conflicts in the system of financial and legal incentives of investment activities of the regions. A proposal to optimize the preliminary control of the Prosecutor's offices of the legality of the investment legislation, in particular, the structure of which has different financial and legal incentives of investment activities in Russian regions.

The characteristics of private property in Russia are analyzed in the article from the political economy point of view. To the author's opinion, the specifics of private property could not have been identified and solved appropriately: the reason is that the highest level of the development of private property - the property on means of production - has not been formed during Russia’s history. That is why adequate institutions of private law as marginal forms of legal consciousness in civil and business spheres could not be established. Real business law is different from the formal legal one. The major cause of such incompliance within de jure and de facto economic norms is the difference between basic economic structures: property on means of production - power-ownership in Russia - and western private property. Understanding of this helps to define problems and possible scenarios of business’ development in Russia.

In the context of the reformatting of the new world order, the question of the competitiveness of countries and regions also arises in a new way. At the same time, a set of factors and conditions that determine the competitiveness of regions and its key link, such as their investment attractiveness, are beginning to be perceived in a special way. And the point here is not only in the specific components of the investment potential of competing regions, but also in such combinations of them as become the subject of the art of management. Moreover, being an intangible asset in its economic content, regional competitiveness is able to actualize those aspects, for example, the economic and geographical location of the region, which have not been considered as an asset for a long time, although they have enormous potential. Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation. It is intended for master's degree students in the field of preparation 38.04.04 "State and municipal administration", as well as for undergraduate students in the same direction. In addition, it will be interesting for teachers who read disciplines on regional economics and management of competitiveness and investment attractiveness of regions.

The aim of the study is to investigate and analyse the different aspects of the innovation development of the North-Western Federal District (the Russian Federation). The concepts of innovations, innovation development, innovative economy, knowledge-based economy, state innovation system, innovation ecosystem and regional innovation development have been defined. Also, author’s definition of the innovative development of a region was proposed. Documents regulating the innovation strategy and innovation policy of the North-Western Federal District have been analysed. The justification of the undertaken topic comes from the need for defining strong areas of the innovation potential of the North-Western Federal District and requirement for consideration of the regional innovation system elements of the North-Western Federal District such as knowledge-producing environment, knowledge transfer mechanisms, business environment and state, and its innovation infrastructure. The methodology of the study involves studying of the theoretical framework of the innovations, quantitative and qualitative indicators of the innovation development of the North-Western Federal District, and analysis and synthesis of these data. The main results of the study are: innovative development of the region correlates with the general direction of the country’s innovative development; the regional innovation system includes the same macroblocks as the national innovation system does; the North-Western region includes the well-developed innovation infrastructure and all elements of the innovation system. Conclusions on the direction of the innovation development of the North-Western Federal District towards the world’s advanced countries with innovative economy or economy of knowledge as well as on the role of the innovation factor in the regional development have been drawn.

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