The article examines the potential of Russian small business and discusses the possibilities of its participation in the implementation of the import substitution strategy for the development of the Russian economy. An assessment of the potential of Russian small businesses was carried out and two possible scenarios for its dynamics were formulated (inertial and growing). The features of the current stage of functioning of the small business sector have been identified, including the uneven dynamics of the number of small businesses. There has been an increase in the number of self-employed people as the informal wing of this sector. Based on international studies assessing the level of importance of the small business sector in the national economy, the work concludes that the development potential of Russian small businesses is quite high, capable of solving large-scale problems of state economic policy, including the problem of import substitution. The features and structure of the import substitution strategy at the present stage, characterized by large-scale economic sanctions and a difficult international situation, are revealed. A structural and logical diagram has been developed that describes the relationships between the main components of the import substitution strategy at the present stage. The main areas of development of small Russian businesses are identified, ensuring effective import substitution in the context of sanctions and the departure of foreign companies from the Russian market, and the need for its comprehensive state support is substantiated as a condition for achieving the country's technological sovereignty. The results of an empirical analysis are presented, confirming, on the basis of statistical data for 2012–2022, the importance of the role of SMEs in the import substitution processes. Taking into account the incompleteness of the existing information base, an index for approximate assessment of the contribution of this sector to sectoral import substitution is proposed. Using the example of the engineering, agro-industrial and forestry complexes, this index was calculated and a comparative analysis of the role of these in dustries in the implementation of the import substitution strategy with the participation of small and medium-sized businesses was carried out.