further use of parallel imports must be justified – Kommersant

Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said at a retreat in Tomsk that Russian companies continue to focus on purchasing ready-made foreign products, but the further use of parallel imports must be justified.

“The lack of justification for the further use of the parallel import mechanism, which has largely fulfilled its role in stabilizing the situation on the goods market,” said Mr. Patrushev (quoted from “Interfax“).

“Investment and innovation activity of companies, especially in the markets of knowledge-intensive and technological products, has increased slightly. An economically justified balance between domestic consumption, export and import of industrial products, primarily critically necessary for achieving technological sovereignty (including regionally), has not yet been developed,” he said.

Nikolai Patrushev noted that due to insufficient funding, scientists are turning to foreign investment, which, according to him, is fraught with the risk of leakage of scientific and technical information abroad. According to him, over the past 20 years the number of scientific workers in the Russian Federation has decreased by about 25%.

“A serious obstacle to achieving technological independence is the shortage of qualified scientific, engineering and labor personnel. The total number of personnel engaged in research and development in Russia has decreased by a quarter over the past 20 years,” Mr. Patrushev said at a meeting in Tomsk (quoted by TASS).

Nikolai Patrushev argues that, first of all, problems with the financing of science in Russia are associated with insufficient control on the part of managers of budget funds and development institutions over research and development work. Speaking about the situation in Siberia, he said that in the region “problems remain with the introduction into economic circulation of the results of intellectual activity obtained using budget funds.”

According to the Higher School of Economics, the number of scientists at the end of 2021 reached a historical minimum – 340 thousand. The number of scientific personnel in Russia began to decline in 2014. Over the past seven years, there have been fewer scientific workers by 10.5%, or 76 thousand people. After the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, 200 people left Russia only with the help of the Scholars at Risk organization, another 62 scientists left thanks to the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Anastasia Larina