Developing the Regional Knowledge Economy Index: a Case of Russian Regions Evgeny V. Popov 1,2 & Dmitry M. Kochetkov 3 Received: 11 February 2017 /Accepted: 3 February 2019 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract The knowledge economy has come a long way before becoming one of the funda- mental concepts in scientific and political discourse. The World Bank and the OECD analyze the level of development of the knowledge economy at the global level. However, the transformation of the economy at the regional level is also very impor- tant, largely because of the general tendency towards regionalization. This issue is particularly acute for emerging and post-communist countries (including Russia), which are in the process of transition to a market economy. Grounding on the World Bank’ s Knowledge Economy Index indicators, the authors developed the Russian Regional Knowledge Economy Index (Russian RKEI). The authors allocated the leading and lagging groups of regions regarding the knowledge economy development as well as the fastest-growing regions. The authors identified critical success factors in the modernization of regional economic systems. Besides, the authors marked the negative trend in the development of the knowledge economy in more than half of Russian regions. On the one hand, this is due to the economic crisis and a reduction in investment; on the other hand, institutional problems continue to restrain economic development. The results can be used in further theoretical and applied studies for both Russia and other transition economies. Keywords Russia . Regional studies . Knowledge economy . Index Journal of the Knowledge Economy https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-019-00590-8 * Dmitry M. Kochetkov kochetkovdm@hotmail.com Evgeny V. Popov epopov@mail.ru 1 Institute of Economics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 29 Moskovskaya Street, Ekaterinburg 620014, Russia 2 Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, 19 Mira Street, Ekaterinburg 620002, Russia 3 Department of Science and Innovation Policy, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), 6 Miklukho-Maklaya Street, Moscow 117198, Russia (2019) 10:1860–1878 /Published online: 14 February2019