The Evolution of Russian Government Priorities for Scientific and Technological Development: 1990s — 2010s

Abstract

As the Soviet Union collapsed, science and technology policy in Russia turned out to be out of the decision-makers’ attention focus. The socio-economic transformations of the early 1990s negatively affected the scientific and research organizations, which led to a gradual stagnation in the development of scientific knowledge. By the mid-1990s it had posed a threat to the whole scientific potential of the country. Such a crisis triggered debates on what measures should be taken to reorganize state science and technology policy. The reorganization was marked by the practice of goal-setting, a process based on both historical background and socio-economic tasks of a specific time period with all the participants sharing common perspective of the future. This article is an overview of the key program and strategic documents adopted in the period from the mid-1990s till the late 2010s. These documents reflect the evolution of state priorities for scientific and technological development. The analysis of these documents allows us to trace how the scientific and technical policy of the Russian Federation has been transformed from the principle of preserving and supporting the already existing scientific potential to the principle of finding response to specific challenges.