Formation of the price mechanism for energy resources in Russia and the countries of the European union

The current research focuses on the solution to the challenge of finding balance in different energy resources pricing trends. Our research shows that increase in gas price leads to corresponding growth in electricity cost, but the effect of replacement has not occurred yet. The burden on population is growing as cross-subsidization is gradually being canceled in order to increase the production competitiveness. It has been found out that households in Russia pay less nowadays than in the USSR, less than Europeans for gasoline, electricity and diesel at present. If we bring the cost of electricity in proportion to the corresponding level of the Soviet time, it will cost about 0.1825 € per kWh, which quite corresponds to European prices and newly confirms the validity of the author’s calculations. Two theoretically possible directions for the development of Russian energy system based on innovations in energy consumption and production have been defined.