Creation of e-government is impossible without radical institutional changes through the use of ICT (information and communication technologies). Th ese changes require new skills. However, most Russian studies in the analysis of educational needs have focused primarily on the levels of equipment and operational IT skills necessary for ongoing activities rather than on the readiness to initiate and implement necessary reforms. Such approach leads to: a) the lack of understanding of the fact that IT skills are necessary for the e-government builders; b) the failure of the education system to train them; and, consequently, 3) poor performance of e-government projects in Russia Th e paper describes the state of research on the required level of IT skills in the world (1), the research conducted by the e-Gov Center (2), the fi rst in Russia attempt to identify the composition of required IT skills (3), the results of e-government projects (4), the correlation between IT skills level and e-government projects results (5), main conclusions (6) and next steps (7). Th e analysis brings out a direct relationship of e-government projects implementation problems with the lack of specifi c IT skills needed due to the nature and content of such projects.  Using the results of these studies, when applied during the designing of training programs for civil servants, should lead to greater effi ciency and eff ectiveness of e-government projects both in Russia and other countries.