Our paper has an aim to define how intellectual capital elements and knowledge management practices lead to customer value creation. With the use of a questionnaire the unique data from top-management of 76 Russian companies is obtained. According to the main results of the research none of the knowledge-management practices influences the customer value of Russian companies directly. These practices play a mediating role through intellectual capital elements, which on their turn create the customer value. Within the paper we develop a model that reflects how knowledge management practices influence different elements of intellectual capital. The model also shows which elements of Intellectual capital create the customer value of Russian companies. These are preliminary results from an international research project on intellectual capital and knowledge management practices led by Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland).