National innovative system: essence and structure

The study discusses the concept of the category of "national innovation system" by various authors, and as the result the author provided her own definition of this term. The structure of the modern national innovation system has been investigated through the analysis of its structural elements. The most important of them has been placed in the structure of the national innovation system. The legislation in the field of innovation in the Russian Federation has been revised and the barriers and measures to over-come them in the way of progressive development of the national innovation system have been defined.