I would like to give the floor to Artem Oganov,
a Russian scientist.
I would like to note that he is
on the Forbes' list of 50 Russians
who changed the world.
We are very proud of Artem.
Artem, you have the floor.
Thank you very much.
Have we met recently?
Yes, you have a good memory.
You meet with so many people.
I left Russia in late 1998 because,
at the time,
there was no future for a scientific career,
generally, nor prospects in my situation.
I completed a postgraduate training course
in the United Kingdom,
and I worked there for some time.
Then I moved to Switzerland and then
to the United States.
While in America,
I worked my way up and became a professor.
To be honest,
I believed that I would spend my whole life there.
The West was very kind to me,
I have to say.
Later,
it became possible to work in Russia;
the mega-grants began to be issued.
I started spending four months each year in Russia.
And I liked it so much that I decided to move back
to Russia and to reunite my life with the country
that was truly mine.
Now I live in Moscow,
I have three children,
and a fourth baby is on its way.
My dream is to have six children.
Good job.
Mr. President,
my wife's opinion of all this is another matter.
I like working in Russia, living in Russia,
and I like bringing up my children here.
This country has a wonderful education system,
life is interesting, and Russian cities are beautiful.
To me everything is changing
in the right direction here.
I like the students,
the young people who are interested in science.
They are very talented and enthusiastic.
There are some unique young people.
As in my case,
good opportunities for research projects are being
created here,
such wonderful young people are also involved,
and we are focusing on entirely new subjects
that I would not have been able to think about
in the past.
Today, I… in a word,
I have no regrets about my decision to come back
to Russia.
We design new materials on computers,
and we predict the structure and properties
of various substances.
I see.
You know about this.
I remember mentioning Gorynin from St. Petersburg
and the research institute during my conversation
with you, right?
Yes, yes.
We see an interesting and unexpected effect.
My colleagues who live in the West sometimes ask me,
"How are things in Russia?
Aren't you fed up yet?
Or is it really so interesting and comfortable
to live in Russia and there are good guys there?"
I reply that everything is fine.
Some then ask if they should return to Russia as well.
I tell everyone that they should return because,
ultimately, all countries are equally wonderful.
I believe that no country is better
or worse than others are.
However,
there is only one special country
for a person among the more than 200 countries,
it is the country where you were born.
I am very happy that I have made this decision.
I hope that the scientists who left Russia,
and there are hundreds,
or at least dozens of thousands of them,
will be able to return to Russia
and resume their work here.
I am glad that you have found your place in life.
This is not easy to do when you leave,
neither is it easy when you return.
As I see it,
you have returned because in the first place you
have found your place in life.
The project we have launched,
the mega-grants,
one of which helped you return,
is ongoing thanks to you and your colleagues
from various spheres of research.
When you and your colleagues said that you needed
not one-time funding but a promise
of funding for several years,
at the least,
we decided to continue with
this mega-grant programme,
and we have found sources for funding them.
We will do this just as you recommended
and asked us to do.
I guarantee that we will continue this
for several years to come.
What I liked most during my meetings with
your colleagues in Moscow is that they spoke
not only about where it is better to work,
or how,
but about organising this work so that young
researchers would remain connected
to their universities,
which could become their work places in the future.
This means that we must create laboratories,
plus administrative,
organisational,
living and other conditions for them,
so that they would come in full force
and feel comfortable here.
We have agreed that the mega-grant programme
will be divided into several stages
for attracting young researchers
from among post-graduate students
and young researchers with post-graduate degrees.
Frankly speaking,
it was especially gratifying that our researchers,
our young researchers,
many of whom worked or are still working abroad,
are concerned about this aspect –
the future of Russian science,
and they are thinking about how to organise this work
in the best possible manner.
We are especially grateful to you
and to all your other colleagues for this.
You know,
the question of young people
is of the utmost importance,
and it is good that you have touched upon this.
I have been a dreamer all my life,
I always dream about something,
and my head generates ideas all the time.
For a long time now,
I had a dream that some concept would be developed
that would allow Russia to attract the best scientists
once again.
Mega-grants are now stipulated.
So I thought,
it is good that leading scientists have been attracted,
but it would be good if our young scientists
did not leave at all because they will also become
leading scientists in about five to ten years.
It would be good to create the same conditions for them,
so that they would be able
to unlock their potential without going anywhere,
and hence a promising young scientist
would be able to set up a mini-laboratory here,
to spread his or her wings as well as to make his
or her dreams come true.
A concept allowing young scientists
to establish mini-labs has emerged.
I wonder what this is.
Has some machine,
making it possible to fulfill my wishes, been created?
Maybe, it is good that I am telling you this today,
but I am now dreaming that our emigre scientists would
return on the same scale as they had left,
rather than by the dozens and hundreds,
and that at least the most promising ones would
come back.
This would be wonderful not only
for our culture but for our economy as well.
We will consider this.
And not just consider – we have certain ideas.
This may sound rough,
but I will say it, nevertheless.
Russia is interested in having those who have asserted
themselves and who can work effectively here to return.
It is not interested in just anyone coming back.
Although we are interested,
from the civic standpoint,
that all our citizens should come home.
However,
Russian science needs those who can help
it move forward,
in the context of its development.
Thank you and good luck.
By the way, where are you lecturing?
Today, I am at the Skolkovo Institute of Science
and Technology.
I wish you every success.
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