The current paper explores the issues of the origin and classification of numerous «dispersed» institutes that deal with development of Russian regions and serve as a tool of economic diversification to improve the partnership between government and business owners. The research is based on the functional approach, which allows the author to select types of territories with special regime of economic activities, to define characteristics of special economic zones (SEZ) according to activity types and provided preferences, and to describe the most and least attractive Advanced Social and Economic Development Areas (ASED) for residents or participants. The study reveals the urgency of the problem, i.e. the lack of extrapolating mechanisms that would make it possible to share organizing and functioning experiences of different territories to increase the effectiveness of state and municipal investment. The study includes an analysis of performance targets to compare the performance of different ASED for each territory, for SEZ with poor performance (which is mostly caused by the problems of spatial development) and for other development institutions. In the conclusion the author states the following needs: a) to ensure real federalism, b) to form effective incentives to support the formation and realization of the potential of small and medium business in Russian regions.