The author argues that sociopolitical design of modern Russia is still obsolete and in manyways does not meet the modern challenges. The ruling political coalition maintains control over all thelevers of political power, uses them to achieve its own interests, and expands its competence as widelyas possible; in so doing, it faces no opposition from the society and continues to expand its tools forexercise of power. The origins of modern Russian political regime derive from archaic behavior patternsthat prevail in the Russian political class’ behavior. The obsolete design of Russian socio-political systemproduces serious development problems and should be replaced by a modern one. Such modernizationcan be implemented in two different ways. The first one is to develop the democratic component ofpolitical life; the second one is to establish potent legal restrictions on the authority. The former way leadsto chaos and collapse of state, while the latter requires a considerable change in the behavior patterns of Russian political class and is rather promising in the long-term development period.