The VII Russian Creative Week Festival-Forum has come to an end in Moscow

The VII Russian Creative Week Festival-Forum, the main federal event in the field of the creative economy, which took place on July 17 and 18 at the site of the Mechta complex in Gorky Park, has come to an end in Moscow. The forum is organized by the United Center for Creative Economics (ANO "Creative Economy"). In seven years, the creative economy in Russia has gone from an industry initiative to a strategic priority for the country.

The Russian Creative Week 2026 sums up the results and at the same time sets the framework for the next stage, in which the key focus becomes working simultaneously with seven interrelated layers: industry, management, spatial, social, political, personnel and scientific. The task of the next stage of the development of the value-based sector is to project the impact and measure the social effects and dynamics of changes in the quality of life in the country, taking into account all strata. The development of the creative economy is included among the priorities of state policy. On behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, the legislative framework of the industry, mechanisms for supporting creative entrepreneurship have been formed, and federal and regional development programs are being implemented. A Strategy for the development of the Creative Economy until 2036 is currently being prepared for approval, and a core federal project is being developed.

According to Rosstat, by the end of 2025, the share of the creative economy in Russia's GDP reached 4.2%, and the volume of gross value added (GVA) amounted to 8.26 trillion rubles. For comparison, in 2024, these figures were 4.1% of GDP and 7.5 trillion rubles, respectively. Thus, the nominal GVA of the creative economy increased by about 760 billion rubles over the year, which confirms the steady growth of the sector and its increasing contribution to the development of the Russian economy.

Today, Alexander Novak, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, notes that the development of the creative economy goes beyond the sectoral agenda and becomes one of the strategic directions of the country's structural transformation. According to him, creative industries provide new sources of economic growth, create opportunities for regions, businesses and youth, and are an important element in achieving Russia's national development goals.

At the plenary session "Creative Economy: Values uniting the world", Sergey Novikov, Head of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Public Projects, noted important achievements of state policy in the field of creative industries and prospects for further growth of the sector.: "The Russian creative economy is not just about growth figures, but a new smart force based on our fundamental values and human capital. In seven years, the state has built a unique infrastructure, creating conditions for highly educated youth who link their future with Russia and will come to rule the country tomorrow. Contrary to old Western theories, we have formed a sovereign distributed model: the creative sector overcomes the monopoly of megacities and gives a tremendous boost to small towns and villages. The development of regions from Yakutia to Tyumen proves that the creative energy of our people is able to diversify even the raw material base and change the face of the whole country."

At the same time, the creative economy is not only about economic potential, but also about the production of meanings, cultural images and value orientations. Its importance is determined not so much by the volume of products, but rather by the content of the products created, which form public perceptions, influence identity, and convey values both within and outside the country. At the same time, the main resource is a person who is a carrier of knowledge and creative potential, capable of turning ideas into innovative products and services that have both economic, social and cultural value.

Marina Mongush, President of ANO Creative Economy and Director of the Russian Creative Week Forum, noted the transition of the creative economy to a new stage of development — from the formation of a separate sector to an instrument of strategic changes in the economy and society. In her opinion, creative industries are becoming an important resource for developing territories, improving the quality of life and strengthening the country's international positioning.

"In 2026, we are going beyond just talking about values — after all, all creative industries, from design to urbanism, are our meanings embodied in real life. It is important for us to see the entire palette of the seven layers of the creative sector: from the sectoral and deep social layers that hold our values, to the managerial, personnel, scientific, political and spatial development layers. This is the only way, by maintaining this entire complex, we will be able to maintain a balance between commercial benefits, economic benefits and benefits for society, avoiding bias in one direction. It is no longer just a "soft power", but a flexible, smart instrument of global influence. But we were taught how to manage cities in the raw materials era, and there were no ready-made methods for the new reality. That is why we expect a large-scale vision from the national strategy: where are we going? What is our priority — to get away from dependence on raw materials, to vividly declare the Russian way of life on the world stage, or through the creative industries to radically improve the quality of people's lives? The new economy must simultaneously address these three fundamental challenges," stressed Marina Mongush.

The creative economy is a key tool for building social optimism in society. Thanks to the creative industries, the future ceases to be a source of anxiety and becomes a space of opportunity. They are directly related to a person's talent, ideas, and self—expression. Every launched project in the field of creative industries (local brand, animation studio, music festival, IT product) becomes a visible confirmation that success is possible "here and now" in your region and city.

The shift is already being recorded by sociology: according to VTSIOM (2026), 95% of Russian teenagers believe that young people in Russia have the opportunity to realize themselves, and 91% think this way about their own region; and of the 451,000 SMEs in the creative industries, about 40% are entrepreneurs under the age of 35.

It is important to form the younger generation not as consumers, but as authors, creators, turning values into a reproducible resource. In this regard, the launch of a new project, the Creative Generation movement, was announced within the framework of the forum. The organizers of the forum brought together leaders of creative communities from different regions of the country in the format of a festival program. Agreements have been reached on strategic partnerships with professional and industry communities aimed at creating infrastructure for their joint influence on the development of territories and the economy.

This year, the Russian Creative Week has set a new agenda for the further development of Russia's creative economy. The agenda focuses not only on economic growth, but also on a broader, deeper focus: how, through the creative economy, Russia forms its own model of the future — value-based, distributed, and based on humans as the main creator of meaning.

The unified Center for the Creative Economy will focus on the implementation of the new agenda. Among the key areas are the role of creative industries in social and demographic policy, the development of territories through metabrends, as well as the formation of a unified approach to the terminological framework for the development of the sector.

One of these tasks is the participation of creative industries in the social agenda. Today, decisions about having children depend not only on income levels and government support measures, but also on social attitudes, ideas about the quality of life and scenarios for the future. Therefore, achieving the national goals set by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation requires an integrated approach in which economic instruments will be complemented by the influence of culture, media and the digital environment. In this process, creative industries will participate in demographic policy through the formation of social norms and ideas about the modern family, parenthood and life trajectories.

A new approach to territorial development has become a significant direction. Creative industries are becoming a tool for shaping the region's metabrend. The new type of economy requires not just a recognizable name, but the business identity of the region, which operates at the junction of traditional and creative industries, capitalizes on the unique assets of the territory and forms stable economic ties. This year, the Russian Creative Week brought together more than 3,500,000 participants from 81 regions of Russia, international representatives from 15 countries, including representatives from the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Abkhazia.

Over the course of two days, 68 expert and strategic sessions were held with the participation of more than 390 federal experts and industry leaders who shaped new directions for the development of the creative economy. The focus is on the "silver" economy as a new segment of demand for creative industries, return tourism as a model of sustainable development of territories through local identity and creative products, cosmocreanomics as a space for integrating science, high technologies and creative industries, as well as how sports and the creative economy can work together with new formats.

During the forum, 12 cooperation agreements were signed aimed at developing and supporting joint projects, exchanging best practices, and expanding interregional and international partnerships in the creative economy.