Russian President Vladimir Putin was dissatisfied with the weak results of the Rostec state corporation, which is headed by his former KGB colleague in the GDR, Sergei Chemezov. The head of state criticized the company's modest success in high-tech areas during the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects, RBC reports .
During the videoconference, which was also attended by the first deputy general director of Rostec Vladimir Artyakov, the head of state publicly called the results of one of the country's largest state-owned companies "modest".
“Modest results have been demonstrated in the areas for which Rostec is responsible. I know that colleagues there will now say: there is not enough funding, something else. But I'm just stating the fact that it's happening," the president said.
Putin clarified that he was not satisfied with the results of projects to create fifth-generation networks and develop the production of equipment for widespread use (Internet broadcasting). Moreover, according to him, the project for the development of microelectronics last year "had to be completely rebooted." To monitor progress, the President proposed assigning a responsible Deputy Prime Minister to each Rostec project.
In 2021, the state corporation and the government signed an agreement on a subsidy for the development of 5G communication networks. The volume of investments in the project was estimated at 43 billion rubles, of which 21.463 billion were to be allocated from the budget. The project was implemented with the aim of obtaining by 2024 a “comprehensive domestic 5G solution”. Also, by 2024, the company has committed to implement projects in the areas of the Internet of things and blockchain, the total cost of which was estimated at 41.6 billion rubles.
However, the main project of the state corporation was to be a megaproject to develop its own microelectronics industry. For the implementation of this task, Rostec demanded almost 800 billion rubles until 2024, in February the government considered the possibility of creating a whole national project for the development of microelectronics.
Other state-owned companies involved in the development of high technologies got less from Putin. Restrained praise was given to Sberbank (for artificial intelligence), Russian Railways (quantum communications) and Rosatom (composite materials). In other high-tech areas, Putin acknowledged the failure and weak pace of development.
“However, in general, this work cannot be recognized as very successful either. Five of the thirteen areas are not being implemented, while the rest have achieved at least 25% of the targets. And of course, in the 22nd year, these indicators will not be achieved,” the head of state admitted.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin, for the first time, has allowed himself to publicly criticize a major state structure for weak results. Even during the discussion of the problems of the automotive industry, which collapsed by 97% after the departure of foreign manufacturers, the head of state did not allow such critical attacks. The head of Rostec and Putin's former KGB colleague in the GDR, Sergei Chemezov, admitted during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) that Russia is critically dependent on Western technologies in many industries, but this should not be scary. According to Chemezov, it's time for Russians to "fall in love with Russian", then the domestic manufacturer will have a chance.
