Marina Mongush: Russia’s Creative Economy Is Growing Nearly Four Times Faster Than the National Economy as a Whole

Russia’s creative economy is a fast-growing sector in which intellectual property, ideas, and human talent, rather than natural resources, are becoming key strategic assets. President of the Unified Center for the Creative Economy (the Creative Economy Autonomous Nonprofit Organization) Marina Mongush discussed this in greater detail in her visionary lecture.

She noted that Russia had adopted a federal law on the development of creative industries two years ago, providing greater legal clarity for businesses and regulators.

Marina Mongush highlighted the key principles of Russia’s creative economy: decentralization and respect for people. She stressed that a product’s value is not measured by how much money it earns its producers, but by how many people it helps become better. In her view, this is what distinguishes Russia’s approach to developing the creative economy from the Western model.

“US economist and sociologist Richard Florida argued that the creative class is a privilege enjoyed by large cities,” she said. “The creative economy lives, evolves, and creates in a metropolitan environment. The Western model of the creative economy is based on centralization, because its primary objective is to accumulate capital.”

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