The article deals with Russian energy system performance at the last third of XIX and throughout XX centuries in two aspects: in the context of governmental regulation and foreign involvement. The research aimed on Oil and Gas industry mainly. The issue of Russian government and foreign companies’ relationship evaluation is in the spotlight. Moreover, there was undertaken an attempt to find out the factors that encouraged marginalization of the industry and vice versa its development in a context of foreign business and state bodies interactions. The article gives a positive correlation between the scale of foreign participation, dimension of governmental regulations and economic state in a current moment.
