To diagnose the sustainability of the present socio-economic configuration of the old industrial region of Russian Federation in transition economy and to analyze tendencies to describe possible changes of the regional sustainability in the future Sverdlovsk Oblast was chosen for a case study. In the result of drastic drop in industrial production output during last ten years emission of pollutants in the environment has significantly decreased too. But during the same period the most part of region’s mining and metallurgical combines became more outmoded because of luck of funding for reconstruction. The second negative tendency is that the structure of regional economy becomes more and more “heavy”: the quota of raw materials and semi-finished products has increased. The third negative tendency is the dynamics of specific expenditures of energy and resources per the unit of industrial production output.