Krasnikov Reports to Putin on Advanced Work of the Academy of Sciences
July 17—Gennadiy Krasnikov, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), reported on July 15 to Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the advances made in the work of the Academy in advancing science in Russia. He noted that the Academy has solicited a growing number of “expert opinions” with regard to the direction they should take in the various areas of science, amounting to 87,000 such opinions since 2022. These “opinions” have covered all the major tasks taken on by the Academy, including opinions regarding the various institutes and universities under their purview, the 20 national projects for technological leadership decided on by the State Council last year, development of scientific road maps, programs for scientific and technological development of the regions, and supervising the publication and proliferation of school textbooks. “We have now drawn up a plan with the Ministry of Education to create unified textbooks in mathematics, physics, computer science, chemistry, and biology for general and secondary general education,” he said.
Major work is being done on the Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed rail project, the cleaning of the December 2024 oil spill in the Black Sea, and important work to deal with the extensive flooding in Siberia. Krasnikov also noted that the Academy has set up an RAS division in the newly liberated areas in the Ukraine.
He also touched upon the work the RAS was doing in the all-important defense field, the sixth sub-program launched at the end of 2023. “We believe that it is very effective,” Krasnikov said. “I can say that it was done very correctly: all our research is in demand, it is agreed with the general designers of weapons and general technologists who have been approved." He told Putin that he would ”report to you separately later on the results of the sixth subprogram, because we are getting unique results both in hypersonics and in other work." The hypersonic Oreshnik missile was developed through work with RAS, and has been shown to be devastatingly effective, carrying no warhead, in use in the Ukraine last year.
Krasnikov also noted that the RAS had also taken the 336th Separate Guards Brigade of the Baltic Fleet, a marine infantry brigade, "under their patronage” in order to improve their fighting capabilities.