Sustainable Rural Development

This article attempts to analyze the level of socio-economic development of rural areas of the Russian Federa-tion and the Republic of Mordovia as a fairly typical region of the country with their characteristic trends and development problems. It is determined that the development of Russian rural territories is still very far from the state of sustainability. It is emphasized that the situation is changing for the better, but at an extremely slow pace. The problem of saving people in rural areas of the country is raised as one of the most fundamental and requiring close attention from the state. It is proposed to use not only the category of sustainability, but also the concept of inclusiveness in the prospective program documents on rural development in the Russian Federa-tion to characterize dynamic transformations based on the conditions created for the normal life of each person living in rural areas, including transport provision of territories, accessibility of education, medicine and digital technologies, developed infrastructure and employment opportunities.