World-Renowned Scientific University Quietly Untangles Itself From Russian Billionaire

Viktor Vekselberg file photo, adapted from image at state.gov

(Article ©2019 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Mike Eckel – Jan. 14, 2019 – article also appeared at rferl.org/a/mit-quietly-untangles-itself-from-russian-billionaire/29708417.html) Nine years ago, Russian tycoon Viktor Vekselberg was welcomed with open arms by U.S. companies, universities, and even the government. Washington’s relations with Moscow were being reset, and Vekselberg was heading a Kremlin-backed initiative called Skolkovo to […]

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RUSSIALINK TRANSCRIPT: “The 7th Open Innovations Moscow international forum” – GovernmentRu

Dmitri Medvedev file photo

(Government.ru – October 16, 2018) The plenary session’s theme is Smart Country: National Strategy. The international innovation-driven development forum, Open Innovations, has been held in Moscow since 2012 and is co-hosted by the Ministry of Economic Development, the Moscow Government, the Rusnano Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programmes, the Russian Venture Company, the Foundation for Promoting Innovation, the Skolkovo Foundation […]

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Putin’s Reliance on American Commerce Has Never Been Greater

File Photo of Boeing 747, adapted from image at navy.mil

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Jake Rudnitsky, Ilya Arkhipov – June 15, 2016) U.S. becomes Russia’s No. 5 partner as trade war hits EU worse Boeing, Cargill, Yum! lead U.S. companies expanding in Russia President Vladimir Putin loves to reel off statistics, but here’s one he may not trumpet at his annual investment forum in St. Petersburg this week: Russia’s reliance […]

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Russian Academia’s Struggle to Attract Top Talent

Skolkovo File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vasily Kolotilov – February 8, 2016) About half an hour from the western outskirts of Moscow, the grays of Russian suburbia give way to a jagged horizon of shiny glass, concrete and abandoned building sites. A series of giant wooden pencils emerge, bearing the insignia “Skoltech.” The curious art installation signals arrival at the Skolkovo […]

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RBTH: Sochi forum: Sanctions curbing foreign investment in innovation in Russia

Skolkovo File Photo

Participants of the recent International Investment Forum in Sochi say that U.S. and EU sanctions on Russia are impeding international investment in innovative start-ups, with foreign companies not aware of what they can do under the new conditions. Meanwhile, according to Russian observers, several new innovative clusters may be created in Russia, including in Sochi. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – […]

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American Head of Russia’s Silicon Valley University Quits

Kremlin and Saint Basil's File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – September 16, 2015) After four years at the helm of one of Russia’s most high-profile applied research universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Edward Crawley will step down and return to the United States, according to a letter obtained by The Moscow Times on Tuesday. Crawley, a member of several senior […]

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NEWSLINK Bostinno: What Now for MIT and Moscow’s ‘Innovation City’? [Skolkovo]

Skolkovo File Photo

In 2011, MIT and Russian institutions including the Skolkovo Foundation launched a multi-year collaboration to facilitate the conception of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology—dubbed Skoltech— a private graduate research university in a suburb of Moscow that was designed to stimulate the Russian entrepreneurial ecosystem and address a number of pressing global issues.   http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/05/16/mits-skolkovo-tech-incubator-skoltech-struggles-in-russia/  

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Moscow Times: Life After Putin: Teaching Future Russia

Skolkovo File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexey Eremenko – December 11, 2014) The professional future is bright in Russia, where space geologists and airship constructors will be among the most in-demand professionals by the 2020s, according to an atlas of Russia’s future job market recently published by Skolkovo’s Moscow School of Management. But whether Russia will be churning out droves of […]

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INTERVIEW: Andrei Sharonov – sweating the chernovniki

Skolkovo File Photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – June 17 2014) Summer has finally come to Moscow and the main hall in the Red October chocolate factory that sits on the River Moskva across from the Kremlin is buzzing with young workers flapping about in flip-flops or hunkered over computers writing code. This is ground zero for […]

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Skolkovo Foundation Touts Growth as Innovation Rating Drops

Skolkovo File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – January 31, 2014) Despite the fact that Russia went down 11 positions to 62nd place in the 2013 Global Innovation Index, Skolkovo Foundation executives said Thursday that the technology incubator plays an important role in buoying the country’s position in such ratings. The index, jointly prepared by Cornell University, INSEAD and the […]

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Prosecutors drop charges against Skolkovo Foundation

Skolkovo File Photo

MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax) – The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has dropped its charges against the Foundation for the Development of the Center for the Elaboration and Commercialization of New Technologies (Skolkovo Foundation) after the latter corrected the violations uncovered earlier, the Prosecutor General’s Office said on Saturday. “The management of the non-profit organization Foundation for the Development of the […]

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No criminal cases expected over violations in Skolkovo innovation centre

Skolkovo File Photo

(Interfax – October 31, 2013) The materials of the checks carried out by the Prosecutor-General’s Office, which uncovered serious violations regarding the use of budget funds in the Skolkovo innovation foundation, will not cause an immediate launch of criminal cases, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported, quoting an informed source in the law-enforcement structures as saying. No criminal cases expected […]

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Skolkovo Warned Over Potential $4 Billion in Misspending

Skolkovo File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – October 31, 2013) Fraudulent schemes used during the creation of state-owned innovation hub Skolkovo have created the potential for misspending almost $4 billion in state funds, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Wednesday. “A lack of proper control on the part of Skolkovo Fund management over implementation of the project has prompted uncontrolled […]

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RIA Novosti: Prosecutors Expose Major Irregularities at Russia’s ‘Silicon Valley’

Skolkovo File Photo

MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) ­ Russian prosecutors said Wednesday they have exposed major financial irregularities and waste at a center for innovation that has long been the pet project of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement that spending at the Skolkovo Foundation has become “out of control and extravagant” and that it has […]

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Government Backs Skolkovo High-Tech Hub With Funding Pledge

Skolkovo File Photo

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 2. 2013) The Russian government appeared to renew its support for the Skolkovo innovation hub Thursday as Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told the Cabinet that the embattled project would be included in a state program and receive 502 billion rubles ($15.2 billion) of funding through 2020. The brainchild of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and […]

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Intel, IBM Feel Putin Pinch as Medvedev Tech Hub Falters

Skolkovo File Photo

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer, Irina Reznik & Jason Corcoran – July 17, 2013) When Russian agents stormed the downtown offices of the Skolkovo technology hub being built near Moscow on April 18, a startled Intel Corp (INTC). executive got caught up in the raid. Dusty Robbins, head of global programs for the world’s largest chipmaker, was forced to […]

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Kremlin not increasing pressure on government – deputy premier

Igor Shuvalov file photo

(Interfax – June 21, 2013) The Kremlin is not increasing pressure on the Russian government; President Vladimir Putin is simply changing the principles governing the work of the executive authorities, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has said. Shuvalov was speaking in an interview to internet and satellite broadcaster Dozhd TV on 21 June on the sidelines of the St Petersburg […]

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Skolkovo Reality Becoming Less Virtual

Skolkovo File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guennadi Moukine – June 20, 2013) Hovercraft, bionic arms, space tourism and nuclear laptop batteries may all be products of the future to be created and brought to market by Skolkovo, the business education and technology center taking shape on the outskirts of Moscow. Despite a bumpy start that has included typical Russian corruption scandals, […]

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Young G20 entrepreneurs discuss future at Skolkovo

Skolkovo File Photo

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com  – Nathan Gray – June 17, 2013) As the 2008 economic crisis took hold worldwide, the impact began to spur a change in the direction of economic policy. The most notable change was the replacement in 2009 of the G8 in the field of economic development by the G20, a more diverse organization that reflected a […]

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Medvedev Learns Geology at Skolkovo as Startups Seek Their Niche

Skolkovo File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guennadi Moukine – May 29, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited the Startup Village conference at Skolkovo on Tuesday, reaffirmed his commitment to the Skolkovo innovation hub following a recent embezzlement scandal surrounding the project he conceived during his presidency, and learned a bit of geology. “I never knew that Kaliningrad had commercial geo-thermal sources,” […]

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Russian high-profile innovations centre insists it does not fund opposition

Skolkovo File Photo

(Interfax – May 15, 2013) The head of the Skolkovo Foundation, tycoon Viktor Vekselberg, has denied reports that the innovations centre has been financing the opposition in Russia, privately-owned Interfax news agency reported on 15 May. Asked by journalists whether the Skolkovo Foundation may have been involved in financing the opposition movement in Russia, he said: “No, it is categorically […]

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Investigative Committee, Surkov Trade Barbs Over Skolkovo

Skolkovo File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – May 8, 2013) An investigation into the embezzlement of budget funds from state-owned innovation hub Skolkovo has led to a public spat between the agency conducting the investigation and the Cabinet of Ministers, whose head, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, created the institution in 2010. On Tuesday, pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia published a damning […]

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Russian deputy PM hints at political pressure on innovation centre graft probe

Skolkovo File Photo

(Interfax – April 18, 2013) Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov said on 18 April that “certain forces” are trying to undermine the country’s budding innovation centre, Skolkovo, which is being investigated for embezzlement, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported. Surkov, who is a member of the Skolkovo Foundation’s board of trustees, was speaking following a raid by Federal Security […]

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Skolkovo Office Searched in Corruption Probe

Skolkovo File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – April 19, 2013) The downtown office of the Skolkovo Foundation was searched Thursday as part of an ongoing corruption scandal involving two former executives whom the Investigative Committee accused of using a fraudulent tender to steal 23.8 million rubles ($789,000). A spokesman for Skolkovo ­ Russia’s high profile project to diversify its […]

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Skolkovo Executive Linked to Payments to Opposition Lawmaker

Skolkovo File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – April 19, 2013) A prominent Kremlin critic in the largely rubber-stamp parliament, Ponomaryov suggested that ulterior motives lay behind Friday’s news. Investigators have accused a top manager at the government’s flagship Skolkovo Foundation of making $750,000 in improper payments to a State Duma deputy with close links to the street protest movement, […]

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Police Raid Medvedev’s Innovation Hub Over Fraud Inquiry

Skolkovo File Photo

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov & Henry Meyer – April 18, 2013) Russian police raided the Skolkovo innovation hub, a project championed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a day after his speech to parliament was overshadowed by a leaked video. Investigators talked today to the foundation’s head, billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, and other top officials, Skolkovo spokesman Roman Shcherbakov said […]

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Russian science park project to continue despite doubts in viability – deputy PM

Skolkovo File Photo

(Interfax – Zelenograd, April 5, 2013) The Skolkovo (science park) project will be carried out despite the doubts in its viability circulating in society, the deputy PM and government Chief of Staff, Vladislav Surkov, has said. “Despite various opinions and discussions in society we will have our own way and will still continue building Skolkovo,” he said at the meeting […]

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Russian innovation now saddled up, and riding fast

Skolkovo File Photo

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – March 25, 2013 – Conor Lenihan, special to RBTH) Russia has been climbing rapidly up the innovation rankings over the last five years. Conor Lenihan is Skolkovo Foundation Vice President for External Economic Relations. He previously served as Ireland’s Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation. German statesman Otto von Bismarck once famously observed […]

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Now That The Thaw Is Over

File Photo of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin with Heads Bowed Over Microphone

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – February 14, 2013) Does anybody remember Skolkovo? What seems like eons ago, back when iPads were still must-have gadgets for the Russian elite, the scientific and technological center was the showcase project in Dmitry Medvedev’s efforts to modernize the country’s economy to make it less dependent on oil and gas. Well Skolkovo is back […]

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Q&A: Venture Fund Chief Investing in Human Capital

File Photo of Cash, Coins, Line Graph

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Rachel Nielsen – Februry 14, 2013) He has had long discussions with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, sits on the Skolkovo Foundation’s board of trustees with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and presidential aide Elvira Nabiullina and heads a company investing $1 billion of federal money into next-generation technology startups. These weighty responsibilities are the most recent […]

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Putin Vetoes Proposed Breaks for Medvedev Innovation Hub

Skolkovo File Photo

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Scott Rose & Ilya Arkhipov – Dec. 12, 2012) Russian President Vladimir Putin vetoed legislation passed by parliament on changes to the Skolkovo innovation hub, a project championed by Premier Dmitry Medvedev, threatening to widen a rift between the two men. The bill, which proposed delaying mandatory residency requirements for Skolkovo, needs additional work to determine […]

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