This article looks at the transition from the model of relationship between business and state, which dominated in Russia in the 1990s, to the one at the beginning of the 21st century. Russian history provides extensive evidence that business and state had always been closely connected and interdependent in this country. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, interdependency changed to dependency: while in the 1990s business was dominating the state, on the edge of two centuries the state took control over business. The tradition of close co-operation has been destroyed.