(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, July 6, 2013) Three new pieces of Russian legislation appear likely to inflict serious collateral damage on that country, eliminating a defender of Lake Baikal against industrial pollution, inflicting new suffering on the already hard-pressed numerically small peoples of the north, and destroying some of the last vestiges of federalism in the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 4, 2013) Transformations in the Russian Academy of Sciences will be evolutionary and take three years. Corresponding members may become academicians in that period, the Academy administration will be abolished, and the Academy’s Agency for Scientific Institutes will manage Academy property and research centers. “There will be no haste; transformations will begin unhurriedly, one or two […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 5, 2013) Russia’s prestigious Academy of Sciences, whose members are currently engaged in a fierce battle against government-proposed reforms, found itself under fire yet again Friday when police raided the basement of its Moscow headquarters for illegal immigrants. After receiving a tip-off late Thursday that the basement was being used as a makeshift hostel, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – July 3, 2013) The State Duma is set to vote Wednesday in a first reading on a heavily criticized bill sponsored by the government that would strip the Russian Academy of Sciences of an important source of revenue: the right to lease its premises. On Tuesday, around a thousand researchers held a […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 3, 2013) Bureaucrats should not have the right to appoint directors of academic institutes, President Vladimir Putin said. “I would like to call your attention to a key provision of this draft law [reforming the Academy], i.e. the establishment of an agency managing Academy assets and essentially performing one of its main functions – the appointment […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 3, 2013) A government-backed bill on a sweeping overhaul of Russia’s Academy of Sciences was passed in the first reading by the lower house of the federal parliament on Wednesday, despite fierce opposition from the academy’s leadership. The bill proposes handing control over the academy’s vast assets and 434 scholarly institutes to a new […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 27, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the system of the Russian Academy of Sciences needs to be reformed, adding an appropriate draft law is being drawn up. Medvedev told a government meeting that the Cabinet will consider reforming the system of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the appropriate draft federal law. “Russia now […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 27, 2013) The Russian government is to overhaul the nation’s Academy of Sciences, it announced on Thursday, including stripping it of the right to manage its property in apparent impatience with the state of the organization. “It’s important to allow the scholars to focus on science and research and spare them of the irrelevant […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 25, 2013) A member of the Russian Academy of Sciences has dismissed as “nonsense” a new global rating of academic research by Nature magazine, in which his academy ranked 193rd among 200 institutions. “I’m absolutely convinced it’s nonsense, since Russian science is a world leader in many spheres [of research],” geologist Nikolai Lavyorov told […]
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(RIA Novosti – WASHINGTON, June 19, 2013) Russian technology start-ups that were selected as finalists in a prestigious US business development competition might not be able to take part in the months-long contest because of visa problems, the head of an investment company that is co-sponsoring the event said Thursday. Four teams of two Russians from start-ups developing apps […]
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(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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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Olga Khvostunova – June 4, 2013) The system of Russian science is deteriorating, despite the government’s claims that the country is modernizing. This April, Thomson Reuters published a report revealing that Russia is absent from leadership groups in the 100 top-ranked specialties in the sciences and social sciences. Another report, produced by the […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Kristen Blyth – June 3, 2013) There’s a new president in town, and his name is Vladimir Fortov. President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, that is. Fortov, a prominent Russian physicist and head of Moscow’s Joint Institute for High Temperatures, won 58 percent of the vote in a secret-ballot election among academy members last […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 30, 2013) A nuclear physicist with ties to the business community is promising reforms after being elected as Russia’s second post-Soviet president to the Academy of Science. Vladimir Fortov, 67, whose research has been used in the defense industry, received the majority of the votes cast by academics in Wednesday’s election, beating rival and […]
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(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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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 27, 2013) The personnel of the SP-40 weather station, based on a split ice floe in the Arctic Ocean will be evacuated in mid-June, Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi told reporters on Monday. An icebreaker will depart from Murmansk to collect the personnel and equipment. “If the mission goes as planned and the Yamal icebreaker keeps […]
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(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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(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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(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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(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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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – April 15, 2013) One of the most famous and secretive features of the Soviet Union, closed cities – known today in Russian as ZATOs – still dot the country, though in far fewer numbers than during the Cold War. The cities, which numbered upward of 100 throughout the different republics in the […]
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(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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NOVO-OGARYOVO. April 1 (Interfax) – The Russian authorities should think about expanding programs aimed at returning qualified Russians who are working as scientists abroad, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with the students and faculty of the Baltic Federal University. Vladimir Vanag, director of the Institute of Chemistry and Biology at the Baltic Federal University, who earlier worked […]
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(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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MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) – Russians are losing interest in science, Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax. It polled 1,600 respondents in 138 towns and cities in 46 regions on February 2-3. Only 47% show interest in the latest scientific achievements and technologies. The indicator stood at 68% in 2007, the center said. The number of people who […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Gryaznova – January 29, 2013) 2012 was a busy and successful year for Russian scientists. They went on the hunt for long-hidden genomes, mysterious particles and subglacial lakes, and in their downtime deorbited multimillion-dollar satellites. The year wrapped up with the annual nationwide science festival, which aims to make scientific research more accessible to […]
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(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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MOSCOW, December 7 (RIA Novosti) – Russian science is in crisis, mainly due to underfunding and the lack of a coherent national development strategy, according to a report from the Russian Science Promotion Association (RSPA), a non-governmental organization that advocates on behalf of science. The report, prepared under the supervision of Yevgeny Velikhov, RSPA head and member of the Russian […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Alex Morales – November 27, 2012) Thawing permafrost threatens to intensify global warming, sending the planet beyond the 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of increases that envoys at United Nations climate talks have set as a maximum. Frozen soils that cover a quarter of the land area in the northern hemisphere contain 1,700 gigatons […]
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(Freed scientist finds little change or hope in Russia – Reuters – Gabriela Baczynska – November 25, 2012 – http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/25/us-russia-scientist-idUSBRE8AO02V20121125) Reuters interviews Russian physicist Valentin Danilov after his release from a Siberian penal colony, where he was previously jailed on allegations of espionage. Danilov sees little change in Russia’s political or ethical climate, blaming Russian voters at least in part: […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – November 14, 2012) Valentin Danilov, a Siberian physicist jailed on charges of espionage and treason amid a spying frenzy that swept the country in President Vladimir Putin’s first term, was granted parole Tuesday and could be freed next week. Human rights campaigners praised the ruling, saying Danilov should never have been imprisoned […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – November 2, 2012) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday rejected a government plan to develop science and technology after describing its reliance on a surge in private funding as “absolutely unrealistic.” The proposal, reviewed at a Cabinet meeting, envisioned that private companies would increase spending on research tenfold by 2020, compared to […]
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Russia reveals shiny state secret: It’s awash in diamonds; Trillions of carats’ lie below a 35-million-year-old, 62-mile diameter asteroid crater in eastern Siberia known as Popigai Astroblem. The Russians have known about the site since the 1970s. – Christian Science Monitor – September 17, 2012 – By Fred Weir, Correspondent – JRL 2012-165 click here to read orginal article Russia […]
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