ABSTRACT
The paper aims to identify the peculiarities of the digital development of Russian regions in terms of socio-economic uncertainty and determine the vector of regional policy to ensure accelerated digitalization of territories. The authors analyzed the main indicators of digital development households, organizations, and public authorities of Russian regions in the pre-pandemic period compared to the period of an active course of the pandemic, as well as at the stage of military and political instability. The research identifies Russian regions where digital development processes accelerated during the period of social and economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as regions where digitalization limitations became evident. The analysis allowed the authors to conclude about the multidirectional influence of socio-economic uncertainty on the course of digital development processes in Russian regions. On the one hand, the transformation in consumer behavior and the new external conditions of socio-economic uncertainty during the pandemic led to an accelerated digitalization of regional economic systems. On the other hand, the socio-economic uncertainty of 2020 has caused dramatic changes in the implemented business models, formats of organizations, and the nature of employment, which manifested itself in the reduction of most indicators of digital development of organizations in 2020. For each selected group of Russian regions, the authors proposed state policy measures in the field of digital development, which is supportive and accelerated in nature. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.