This issue examines state-business relations, and in particular the impact of the modernization agenda promoted under President Medvedev. The first article introduces the topic with an overview analysis of the modernization program, and considers whether this agenda will continue to be given the same priority after Medvedev stands down. The second article focuses on the impact of the modernization program on Russia’s emerging nano-technology industry, and considers the challenges it faces in becoming internationally competitive. And the third article examines the practice of raiding on Russia’s business landscape, and discusses the problems that the informal and often corrupt linkages between the state, elites and the courts are causing for the official modernization agenda.