Research and Development in Russia: An Important Factor for the Future

Publication Date: August 1998

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Science and technology

Type:

Coverage: Russia (Federation)

Abstract:

If the U.S. government had reduced its research and development (R&D) funding by about 76% in real dollars from 1990 to 1996, the U.S. national R&D system would be in crisis. But even then, the situation in the United States probably would not have been as severe as is now the case in Russia, where that percentage of reduction in governmental R&D funding has occurred, because the United States has a large private-sector R&D system.

The leadership under President Yeltsin continues to move Russia from the Soviet-era command economy toward a free-market system. This involves a restructuring and downsizing of Russia’s R&D system and its reorientation toward civilian R&D. This restructuring, however, also has been driven to a significant extent by the nation’s deep economic recession. Although large decreases in R&D funding and personnel and a deterioration of R&D facilities have occurred since 1991, recent R&D budget figures (questioned by some experts) might indicate a reversal of this trend. The most recent changes in the government’s top-level R&D policy leaders also suggest that R&D, despite its budget decreases, still is considered important in Yeltsin’s reform government. Among several recent important R&D reforms was the establishment of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research in 1993, an important innovation in Russian R&D policy because it funds individual researchers directly rather than their research institutes, on the model of the U.S. National Science Foundation. A number of international financing schemes and structures to bolster the Russian R&D system also have been created.

U.S. policy issues parallel ongoing U.S. and international programs to more fully integrate Russia peacefully into the community of nations, thereby reducing the potential for future conflict and increasing Russia's contribution to world economic development. Major federal programs in support of Russian R&D accounted for about $1.5 billion during the period from 1992 through 1998, with NASA contributing over $900 million and DOD, DOE, and other federal agencies the rest.

One of the several new organizations established to cooperate with Russia in R&D activities by providing research grants to Russian scientists is the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation, created by Congress in 1992. Supporting all U.S. cooperative R&D programs with Russia is the U.S.-Russian Joint Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation, established in April 1993. It appears that the U.S. cooperative R&D programs are contributing to Russia's peaceful transition to a market economy and are successfully addressing scientific and
technological problems and opportunities of mutual concern to the United States, Russia, and other countries. Several years of experience with U.S.-Russia cooperative R&D programs suggest that it is both worthwhile and practicable for the United States to identify and promote cooperative R&D programs which are mutually beneficial to the two nations, while carefully restricting R&D and dual-use technologies that may contribute to near-term or long-term military threats to U.S. national security.