We were motivated for this study in course of conducting empirical research on Russian companies. During the pre-crisis (2008) and post-crisit (2010) period we have conducted two empirical studies on Russian companies, aiming to assess their strategies capabilities and orientations. When working with the data from the studies we have discovered that there is a trend, confirmed by our results, that the theory on customer orientation seem to be not fully confirmed on results received from Russian businesses. Additionally we had insights from indepth interviews with companies, operating in Russia, conducted in 2009 and aiming at assessing the role customer orientation in Russian firms. The results of the qualitative study have supported our insights. This paper aims to sum up our findings and set agenda for further research on customer orientation in Russia and potentiall in other transition economies.