Spatial aspect of the coronavirus crisis development of Russian small and medium-sized businesses

The purpose of the article is to analyze spatial development trends of Russian small and medium-sized businesses in the active stage of the coronavirus crisis. Its relevance is due to the fact that the coronavirus crisis has no direct analogues in history. Russian small and medium-sized enterprises have shown phenomenal businesses continuity. The long-term trend of narrowing the SME sector in the Russian Federation was interrupted. The average number of employees of small entrepreneurship entities - legal entities has increased in the Moscow Oblast, the North-Western Federal district, Southern Federal district, Krasnodar Krai, North Caucasus Federal district, Stavropol Krai, the Far Eastern Federal district and Primorsky Krai. An increase in the average number of employees of medium-sized businesses-legal entities was observed in all federal districts and in most constituent entities of the Federation. However, the crisis associated with the spread of coronavirus infection in most Russian regions hit individual entrepreneurship, whose reserves were minimal among other SMEs. In addition, individual entrepreneurs have become to re-register as self-employed more actively than other SMEs. The novelty of the work is in improving the complex of anti-crisis proposals. In the near future, it is necessary, in particular, to strengthen support for domestic producers in the regions by restricting state and municipal purchases of foreign goods; to restructure the entire system of preferential lending to SMEs radically; to develop a system of cheap (2-3%) micro-loans for small business entities at the regional level; to allow SMEs to pay tax for actual profits, rather than in advance; to extend the moratorium on tax audits; to simplify the regional patent tax system; to cancel advance utility payments for SMEs - legal entities. The cancellation of emergency anti-crisis measures to support businesses should be carried out not by certain dates initially set, but as the economy of each of the Russian regions improves.