The first part of the paper shows the growth of extreme income inequalities and income weights of the macro-strata; this growth is fraught with dangerous risks for the consolidation of Russian society. In the second part of the article, we focus on the factors that led to this situation and suggest the ways to overcome it. We think that the current situation is mostly a result of unscrupulous actions by the two groups of actors representing big business and part of the governmental and public figures from high levels of power. We use an example of major Russian metallurgical corporations to show the ways of financial “optimization” aimed at reducing tax revenues from the corporations to the consolidated budget of the state. We also provide examples of legitimation of the initiatives of executive authorities that contributed to such an “optimization” of activities of large business. On the other hand, we show that due to the innovative activity of creative specialists in the economy of a number of regions there are modernization processes that limit the growth of extreme inequalities. But these processes are carried out spontaneously and in many ways inefficiently; and they require regulatory role of the state to be increased. These data indicate the weakness of the social state in Russia; this fact makes it necessary to develop a federal target program that will help implement the constitutional principle of a strong and humanistically active social state in Russia. Besides, it is advisable to conduct comprehensive interdisciplinary studies of the evolution of Russian regions; for example, the publication entitled “Regions of New Russia” in 10 volumes can be prepared.