Russian State-Owned Companies Plan to Spend Billions on Innovation Programs by 2020

Russia's Economic Development Ministry has budgeted 4.2 trillion rubles ($131 billion) for spending by state-owned corporations on innovation programs running through 2020.  The bulk of this money, 3.7 trillion rubles, will be distributed among Gazprom and Russian Railways. There are 46 other state-owned companies that are also included in this budget.  The details of these programs are short on explaining how exactly the innovation goals will be achieved. Some, including Andrei Yakovlev, rector of the Higher School of Economics, question whether these innovation programs will have an effect: "There is a great risk that reports with pretty numbers about testaments to innovation will be produced, but in practice nothing will change. There could be a small side effect: an expansion of the R&D market, as happened with the Electronic Russia program."  Fyodor Zherdyov, of the Expert RA agency, who reviewed and rated the innovation programs of 16 Russian companies in June, stated that companies operating in the competitive segment often have better innovation programs in place than those that are monopolists or survive on state orders.  For example, Rosatom (the nuclear power and construction firm ranking first in Expert RA's recent survey), competes globally with companies from the United States and France, and plans to increase its innovation and R&D spending from 3.9 percent to 4.5 percent.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/state-companies-to-spend-131-billion-on-innovation-by-2020/467241.html