Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Council for Strategic Development, and emphasized that his government will “prioritize the issues in technological development” and “quickly create mechanisms in the Russian financial system” to finance those projects.
The July 18 meeting was the Council’s regular bi-annual meeting, but it took on particular significance as Russia charts its course through the hurricane of economic sanctions. Putin began by emphasizing that “our main goal is poverty alleviation,” and he reported progress in reducing the poverty rate from 12.9% in 2017 to 11% in late 2021. He also noted that longevity was rising “towards the goal of increasing life expectancy in Russia to 78 years by 2030.”
As for the sanctions, this has led to “the near total closure of access to foreign high-tech products.… This is exactly where they are trying to put up obstacles for us in order to restrain the development of Russia. It is clear that this is a big challenge for our country. However, we are not going to give up, feel at a loss or, as some of our well-wishers predict, fall back decades. Of course not. On the contrary, realizing the enormous pile of difficulties we are facing, we will intensively and competently look for new solutions, effectively use the existing sovereign technological reserves, and develop domestic innovative companies.”
