Published: 15 February 2018
The purpose of the article is to identify trends in the development of economic potential of different groups of regions of Russia. Discussion. The article hypothesizes that the dynamics of economic potential depends on the presence of a kind of «centers of attraction», which are the cities of millions. To assess the economic potential of the regions, a set of indicators characterizing its individual subsystems is proposed: population, attractiveness, reproduction in terms of the movement of value, industrial production, innovation, investment, education. Accordingly, the indicators themselves are represented by the population; migration population growth; GRP; volume of shipped goods, works, services by type of economic activity «manufacturing»; the volume of innovative goods, works, services; investment in fixed capital at the expense of all sources of funding; release of students (bachelors, masters, specialists). Results. It is shown that groups of regions are characterized by different trends of accumulation of elements of economic potential.