Russia�s economy is in a deep crisis due to the combined effects of the stalled transformation into a market economy, the sanctions imposed since mid-2014 and the parallel slump in the oil price. The Russian rouble has depreciated substantially and in 2015 a harsh recession looms.The crisis has brought an old catchword back into fashion among the political elite: import substitution. Russia�s industry should revive its old strengths and in future itself manufacture the products that have been imported since the rapid deindustrialisation of the 1990s. The downward plunge of the rouble exchange rate, in this respect, operates like a protective tariff for Russian producers. As paradoxical as it might sound, the crisis raises the prospect of Russia�s reindustrialisation. Russia can already point to an example of successful industrial policy: the domestic automobile industry has for years been undergoing modernisation within the framework of classic import substitution.