The article deals with the analysis of Russian legal policy in the sphere of genetic engineering. Over the past ten years, the risks of genetic engineering in the Russian society are mythologized. At the same time attempts were made to change the model of the legal regulation of genetic engineering legislation to tighten it. They worried the scientific community. At the same time the legislative initiatives to tighten the model of the legal regulation of genetic engineering become frequent. This situation worries the scientific community. The authors explore the goals which the Russian legislator aims in the process of legal regulation of genetic engineering, and relate them to the needs of the development of science. The authors identified two problems in the teleology of the Russian legal policy in the field of genetic engineering. Firstly, the concept of national biosafety has not been created. This concept is necessary for specifying not only negative but also positive risks of genetic engineering, that is, for the purposes of definition the use of genetic engineering. Second, the degree of influence of the scientific community to the social representations about the risks of genetic engineering is weak.