Moscow

Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin has issued an unusually blunt assessment of the state of Russian science — and pledged that government funding will be swiftly redirected to the most commercially viable disciplines.

“Today, governmental support of science is completely ineffective,” Putin told a rare meeting of the most senior officials in the government and its scientific advisers at the Kremlin on 20 March.

“Everyone is claiming to be on the path of innovation — but almost nothing has been done in real terms,” Putin said, adding that Russian science was poorly adapted to the market and over-dependent on government funds. “The business sector cannot find a common language with science,” he said.

Putin pledged, nonetheless, to put more government money into research and development. But much of it will be directed at technology development, rather than basic research. “This is the first step towards a sensible, self-regulated departure from the senseless scattering of resources” of the past, he said.

Government officials at the meeting said that, under a reform plan to be fully implemented by 2010, the existing network of scientific institutes will be pruned, and resources sent instead to areas regarded as critical to Russia's interests. They claimed that funding would be increased by a factor of five in areas including telecommunications, electronics, aviation, new materials and chemistry.

The president also pledged to raise salaries for young scientists. Although observers are sceptical of his ability to deliver on this and other aspects of the reform plan, scientific leaders welcomed his participation at the conference.