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- Scientists - light: Putin admits early access to funding for science up to 2% of GDP
Scientists - light: Putin admits early access to funding for science up to 2% of GDP
Russia can reach the financing of science in the amount of at least 2% of GDP by 2030. Vladimir Putin said this at a meeting with participants of the IV Congress of Young Scientists on December 2. In the next three years, at least 1 million engineers will be trained in Russia, and by the end of the decade this figure will almost double. Unemployment in Russia is virtually non-existent, now there is a problem of personnel shortage. However, Valery Falkov, head of the Ministry of Education and Science, told Izvestia that, for example, the problem of "brain drain" has already been reversed. Scientists also presented several projects to solve personnel problems: in particular, the introduction of artificial intelligence in a number of professions. What work Vladimir Putin considers hard and how much rectors earn - in the material "Izvestia".
How was Putin's meeting with representatives of the scientific community
Vladimir Putin began the working week with a meeting with young representatives of the scientific industry. Participants of the IV Congress of Young Scientists closer to the evening gathered in the Moscow region residence of the head of state - Novo-Ogaryovo. Such conversations have already become a tradition for the president: for the last three years he has been communicating with the participants of all seasons of the congress events, which are usually in late November - early December.
This time the president immediately announced the V Congress of Young Scientists: it will be held in the twentieth days of November 2025. At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that compared to last year, the number of participants in the IV season of the event has increased significantly: if in 2023 there were about 5 thousand people from more than 30 countries, this year - more than 7 thousand from 62 countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with young scientists
- And from all continents: from Europe, Latin America and Africa. In general, this is a very representative forum. This once again emphasizes that science, as well as education, as well as art, is called to unite people of different nationalities, views, religions and so on and to be the foundation for common development and movement of all mankind forward, - said Vladimir Putin.
All the participants of the meeting - and there were about 20 people - wanted to ask their questions to the President, so the conversation stretched for two hours. The time passed unnoticed for the scientists, they admitted to Izvestia, as the atmosphere was more than friendly and relaxed.
Participants in the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with young scientists
- Of course, no one expected such a thing. Vladimir Vladimirovich turned out to be very involved in the conversation and immersed in many details. He joked a lot and lightened the atmosphere. I even went beyond the agenda of my speech, with my main aspirations. It was obvious that it was interesting and important for him to talk to us," Rector of Innopolis University Alexander Gasnikov told Izvestia.
At the meeting, the head of state quoted the classics, in particular "Dead Souls," or reacted to jokes from the Internet about his colleagues that have already become popular. Thus, upon hearing the title of one of the sessions of the Congress of Young Scientists, "There is money, but you learn," he immediately responded that today he would just see Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev. "Dmitry Anatolyevich is coming up right now. We have a meeting scheduled with him," Putin said with a smile, realizing the reference to Medvedev's famous phrase.
Plans for the development of science in Russia
Putin believes that the state should create conditions for Russians to be able to afford to do science. For this purpose, today Russia is actively training personnel: there are already 50 engineering schools in the country, and by 2030 there will be at least a hundred of them, the president noted. At the same time in the next three years in the Russian Federation should train about 1 million specialists in the field of engineering, by 2030 this figure will grow almost twice - up to 1.8 million specialists, said the head of state. Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov told Izvestia that the Russian Federation has already managed to cope with the outflow of personnel from the country. "It is impossible to answer in a couple of words. In brief, we have succeeded," he said when asked whether the brain drain from Russia had been stopped.
Among other important plans is to increase science funding to 2% of GDP ahead of the 2030 target year, the president said. According to Rosstat data, Russia's GDP in the first half of 2024 amounted to 89.5 trillion rubles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with young scientists
In the near future, Vladimir Putin will discuss with the government the goals of the country's development, including in the field of high technology. The Russian Federation has already achieved notable success, for example, in replacing imported scientific equipment with domestic ones: today 800 enterprises offer almost 12 thousand products.
- The percentage ratio between foreign and domestic manufacturers and products for scientific instruments has changed dramatically, - the head of state pointed out. - It is clear that we will not produce everything. And we don't need to produce everything. But the main equipment should be domestic, that's for sure. And it is necessary to provide the market for manufacturers, as in any sphere.
He promised to discuss the problem of expensive equipment maintenance with Andrey Kostin, Head of VTB, and Denis Manturov, First Deputy Prime Minister.
Situation with personnel in science
Most of the questions to the President concerned the staff shortage in a number of specialties. For example, Alexander Gasnikov complained about the discrepancy between statistics and realities: there are far fewer physics teachers than the number of teachers announced in the plan. Entrants to pedagogical universities are indeed much less likely to choose physics, math and chemistry, so there are fewer young specialists in these fields, the President stated.
- We are doing, but still we are not doing enough, because the interest of entrants to math, to education in areas related to math, physics, chemistry, unfortunately, has recently fallen again. This can't help but upset us," said Vladimir Putin. - All of us together should definitely think about how we can change the situation and what needs to be done to do so.
Among the proposals supported by the president to increase the flow of people into the profession is the creation of museums of mathematics and natural sciences. The key task of the decade is to attract young people to the sector of research, development and natural sciences, because for a long period of time their number in the Russian Federation has been decreasing, recalled Alexander Mazhuga, First Deputy Head of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education, Scientific Director of the D.I. Mendeleev Russian Chemical University, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, in the last two years, the number of scientists has begun to grow.
- The number of specialists under 39 years of age among scientists in the country has reached 45%, which makes Russian science one of the youngest in the world. This is largely due to the implementation of the state science and technology policy and the development of new support tools. The main thing for a scientist is an ambitious task, and there are no problems with that today," Alexander Mazhuga told Izvestia.
At the same time, the salary remains one of the most important components to stimulate young people to go into science and education, Vladimir Putin noted. During the conversation, he asked how much they earn in senior positions at universities. For example, the rector of Donbass State Technical University Dmitry Vishnevsky said that candidates of science and associate professors at his university earn from 50 thousand rubles a month, while he earns 176 thousand rubles. Rector of Innopolis shared that he earns Br490 thousand a month, was offered Br1 million, but he refused. According to official statistics, the average salary of certain categories of workers in the social sphere and science in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation for January-June 2024 in the country averaged 132,173 rubles. In YNAO - more than 250 thousand rubles, in Moscow - more than 170 thousand, in Ingushetia - about 40 thousand, and in North Ossetia - a little more than 43 thousand.
What projects scientists presented to Putin
The questions that concerned young scientists ranged from new technologies to the climate agenda. Anton Vyshinsky, head of data research at the Artificial Intelligence Center of Sberbank's Services unit, told the President about AI-based simultaneous translation, which could be useful for Vladimir Putin himself.
- You often communicate with your foreign colleagues and you know that there is simultaneous translation and consecutive translation. Here you can prepare the context, our models work quite quickly - about two seconds delay from the speaker, the original language. This is like helping synchronized interpreters. It is also possible to involve synchronists in the development of our solution, because I have read a lot about it and at the conference I stood next to the cabin of synchronized interpreters. Look, this is a Herculean effort," said Anton Vyshinsky.
- It's a terrible job, it exhausts a person completely. That's why, when long events are on time, interpreters are changed," agreed Vladimir Putin.
In this case, according to the President, the use of artificial intelligence will not lead to an increase in unemployment, as people will slightly change the profile of their activities. At the same time, there is actually no unemployment in the Russian Federation - about 2.7%, and even the problem of labor shortage has arisen, the President said.
View of the Mutnovskaya geothermal power plant from the foothills of Mutnovsky volcano in Kamchatka Krai
Many proposals were related to nature conservation. Among them was research in the field of geothermal energy, based on the use of thermal energy from the Earth's interior to produce electricity, which the president considered "very promising" primarily for Kamchatka. In a conversation with a participant who is researching methane emissions in the seas of the Arctic, Vladimir Putin noted that this problem is also relevant on land, especially in areas where permafrost is melting. "There are no foundations there, houses stand on stilts. The worst thing is that there is a large release of methane," he added.
At the same time, the President was surprised by the girl's words that about 60% of methane emissions into the atmosphere are caused by industrial activity, and urged to calculate and compare the shares of methane emitted by natural sources and as a result of human activity. The meeting also raised the issue of shoaling of the Caspian Sea. Vladimir Putin instructed the government to prepare a program of action to combat shallowing and reminded that this issue has been discussed more than once at meetings of the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. "Everyone is concerned about the shoaling of the Caspian Sea. And, of course, it is necessary to pay attention to those animal species that suffer from it obviously and visibly. But in general it is a big problem," Putin said.
In mid-November, Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov said during talks with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin that Russia and Azerbaijan had formed a commission to deal with the problem of shoaling of the Caspian Sea. The commission is tasked with identifying the causes affecting the decline in water levels and developing measures to help reduce shoaling.
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