The resource potential of the oceans has historically had a fundamental impact on the development and spatial organization of mankind. The role of the «marine factor» in economic activity and the formation of settlement systems has increased even more in the modern period, including in Russia, which has long sea coasts that fulfill the country’s most important transport, communication, economic and resource, residential and military infrastructure functions. Since the mid2000s, in Russia there has been a steady increase in foreign trade activity and the marine economy. The author summarizes and develops theoretical concepts created in Russian science about the functions, boundaries, structure of coastal zones as special geographical areas. Based on GIS analysis and the study of a vast array of demographic and economic statistics, the coastal zone of post-Soviet Russia was delimited. Particular attention is paid to the innovative potential of coastal zones, the features of its localization and formation. It is shown that coastal zones and large cities act as a significant environment for building cross-border interactions in the scientific and innovative sphere. The author argues that a further «shift to the sea» of economic activity and the population of Russia is inevitable. It is provoked by geo-economic and geopolitical changes in modern Eurasia which include the processes of integration and disintegration in the Baltic, Black Sea basin, and the Caspian region, the intensification of geopolitical rivalry in the Arctic, and implementation of the Chinese initiative «One Belt - one Road». However, the development of the country’s coastal zones will be unstable, not universal and will be accompanied by a further concentration of socio-economic potential in the few leading coastal centers - St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi, Vladivostok, Kaliningrad, Makhachkala, etc.