Russia drafts 30% innovation spending cuts; Skolkovo and Rusnano first to suffer

Russia?s draft federal budget for the next three years calls for a substantial curtailment of government funding for innovation; the Skolkovo and Rusnano projects might lose 30%.

Russia?s draft federal budget for the next three years calls for a substantial curtailment of government funding for innovation; the Skolkovo and Rusnano projects might lose 30%, the Izvestia website reports, citing two sources in the Russian Ministry of Finance and the State Duma (the lower house of Parliament). According to the Ministry source, Russia is considering re-prioritizing budgetary flows as ?the budget is getting increasingly socially-oriented,? calling for greater spending on orphans, affordable housing and other major programs. ?Plans are to cut by 20-to-30% the government funding of innovation activity, including the Rusnano and Skolkovo projects,? the Ministry source emphasized. These plans appear to run counter to the government?s intention to enhance allocations for both fundamental and applied sciences voiced in a recent statement by Arkady Dvorkovich, the deputy prime minister of Russia. Each year Skolkovo receives between $450m and $600m from federal coffers, and Rusnano, Russia?s largest nanotech company, gets between $900m and $1...