In the aftermath of Russia's accession process to the World Trade Organization in 2011, an extensive public debate emerged on the modernisation of the economy. Enhanced state intervention and authoritarian modernisation were promoted as suitable options for Russia by opponents to neo-liberalism. Medvedev's liberal alternative was promptly discredited in the course of the political competition with Putin. Using ethnographic work, the present essay identifies three models of economic reform and investigates the way they have been considered by professionals in business and trade. The first model, the strategic model, contrary to conventional wisdom, is discussed in the discourse of business actors in terms of economic patriotism, public intervention and state strategic planning; second, the market model is viewed by others as a fully legitimate model; and a third model, the innovation model, combines narratives of efficiency and autonomy, which is attractive but fragile. Beyond their differences, these views have in common a concern to display the relationship of the business sector to the political sphere as a key variable for economic reform.