This was supposed to be an edit, but there were too many ninjas.
To begin my commentary, the article states that one of the reasons why Russia cannot into innovations like Poland cannot into space is because Russian scientists don't want to become entrepreneurs - this is true, but how is this supposed to prevent other people who are not scientists from being entrepreneurs and creating businesses based on selling latest inventions? Surely, if a newspaper writes about "A new wave discovered by our scientists!," there is bound to be among its readers someone shrewd who can say "Hey, I can make money from that!" and forge a partnership with said scientists. It is true that people like this shrewd reader whom I just described didn't start to appear in Russia until very recently, but their dearth is not related to whether or not the Russian scientists want to try themselves in business, rather, it's the other way around, as lack of examples of entrepreneurs becoming rich by selling new inventions is what discourages the men who make these inventions in Russia from becoming entrepreneurs themselves. The stigma on business that the article claims is fundamental in confining our scientists to science did exist throughout the 90s with their rampant banditism that was masquerading as capitalism, and I admit I cannot say how common this stigma is today, but even if we assume that it is indeed so widespread as to make business morally objectionable in all modern Russian scientific circles, I would still like to ask how this stigma is supposed to always emerge victorious from a combat with greed? I am sure that there are many scientists in Russia who are not so morally pure as to avoid soiling their hands with entrepreneurship if they were to genuinely believe that this would bring them profit.
Secondly, I believe that the article is correct in saying that there is no strong community of investors who are interested in putting money into technology in Russia, just as it is correct in saying that there never was such a community in the times of Absolutism and Communism, but I think it is misguided is saying that the attitude towards innovation-based economy that the Emperors and the Gensecs had is also the attitude of Putin and co. and that this attitude is the main obstacle to the development of said community of R&D investors and the innovation-based economy in general in Russia nowadays. Modern Russia is radically different from both the Russian Empire and the RSFSR in that its economy isn't controlled in a top-down fashion by the government: an aspiring entrepreneur today does not need the government to get interested in him or her in order to start a business that sells innovative techologies, unlike in the times of Yablochkov and Sakharov, if he or she can get enough investors interested instead. Now that is not a very easy thing to do in Putin's Russia, that's correct, but not due to the government and its edicts. I agree that an official policy towards science that emphasises achieving new inventions for the sake of achieving new inventions and neglects the application of already existing inventions is not a very good thing, but even if we (erroneously) assume that this is truly what the Skolkovo is all about, I do not see how this can prevent all the investors who are not the government from taking prospective inventions and trying to make money by selling or otherwise commercialising them. Again, the article is true in identifying the problem, but does not exactly analyse its causes well.
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Topic: Russia Watch Thread/Ветка о России (Read 263626 times)