The author touched upon topical issues of inter-budget alignment, budget provision of regions with financial resources, focusing on factors that directly affect the stability of the budget system, as well as highlighting problems in the budget sphere that require urgent attention from the authorities. It is concluded that the level of interregional differentiation continues to increase, and the modern mechanism of budget equalization requires urgent amendments and adjustments. It is emphasized that the main goals of socio-economic development of the Russian Federation related to the transition to an innovative type of development, changes in the structure of the national economy, set out in strategic documents and messages of the President of the Russian Federation and declared since 2009, are not being implemented, and the effectiveness of state economic policy and Federal budget expenditures for its implementation remains low. This indicates the need to review the current system.
Clustering Russian Federation Regions According to the Level of Socio-Economic Development with the Use of Machine Learning Methods