At the close of the first half-year period of 2017, the entrepreneurs’ mood remains pessimistic. The continued pessimistic attitude of entrepreneurs demonstrates that as yet, the crisis period has not passed and the Russian economy will enter a cycle of recession. Further to this, it is likely that exit from the recessionary cycle will be slower than expected. Governmental support was initiated in an attempt to restore confidence and optimism in the markets - however ultimately this failed to reverse the situation. A driving factor in failure to upturn the levels of confidence lies in the fact that the business communities were unaware of the governmental programs and therefore very low numbers used the available support.
The crisis has also highlighted further fundamental issues in the Russian "business classes" and an unwillingness to restructure and develop their businesses to seek competitive advantages within the markets.
Another problem highlighted by the crisis is the low standards of financial literacy demonstrated by business persons and achieving the goals accepted in strategy 2030 is far from certain.
Even given the issues highlighted, it is still possible to find ways to develop and grow the SME sector. The above points partly answer the question regarding the current business climate, but there are more questions that still need to be answered.
Today, business women, youth, business franchise schemes, social businessmen, entrepreneurs involved in the development of hi-tech good are appearing in the growth areas of business. This can further be attributed by a desire to adapt their business operations, show higher levels of creativity within their sector and a higher level of intellectual capital. The overall impact by these individuals and businesses on market conditions however remains relatively small. However, it highlights that speed of development in the SME sector and in the countries economics as a whole for the period 2016 to 2019 will depend not just on numbers of personnel and the size of the business activity, but also on localised and national support for the above mentioned segments.