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Russia hopes to catch techno wave in California
Published: 24 June, 2010, 03:17
Edited: 24 June, 2010, 16:54
TAGS: Meeting, Medvedev, SciTech, Obama, Politics, Internet, North Korea, Information Technology, Nanotechnology, Modernization, Robert Bridge
President Dmitry Medvedev paid a visit to California on Wednesday where he gave special attention to Silicon Valley in an effort to boost US-Russian economic relations - and even sent his first tweet.
Over 200 years ago, the Russian-American Company, Russia’s first joint stock company, was establishing trade posts along the Pacific Coast as economic opportunities with the young American country were beginning to show signs of promise.
The southernmost Russian establishment was called Fort Ross, which is today a scenic park situated in Sonoma County that represents an intriguing piece of shared history between the two countries. It also speaks volumes about the enduring nature of the US-Russian relationship that Dmitry Medvedev chose to begin his US tour by helping to keep this financially strapped park afloat.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who personally welcomed Medvedev on his arrival to America’s most populated state, decided earlier to slash funding of Californian national and historical parks due to an acute budget crisis.
Read also: Medvedev logs into Silicon Valley
On Wednesday, Schwarzenegger and Renova Group CEO Viktor Vekselberg signed in the presence of President Dmitry Medvedev an agreement that will help to preserve Fort Ross from insolvency.
At least one million dollars annually will be needed to keep the Fort Ross in a proper state, Vekselberg told reporters after a singing ceremony of the memorandum.
The Californian governor thanked Vekselberg and Renova Group for their generosity.
From sleepy state park to sleek Silicon Valley
But the real purpose of Medvedev’s California visit was to promote economic relations between America’s most dynamic economic state and Russia, which is looking to overhaul its manufacturing base and diversify its oil-dependent economy in favor of sleek, cutting-edge technologies.
Schwarzenegger stressed his enthusiasm for working side-by-side Russia, especially at a time when some economists recently compared California with Greece, which was forced to go begging for money from the International Monetary Fund in order to avoid full-blown bankruptcy.
At the end of last year, California had accumulated $83.5 billion in long-term bond debt, with about three-fourths of that amount in the form of general obligation notes, which are financed by the state's general fund.
But despite California’s questionable bill of health, the vibrant state remains a magnet to hundreds of hi-tech companies that are helping to power the American economy through its worst economic recession since the Great Depression.
“I have never been to this state, but I heard a lot,” Medvedev commented to his host. “I know that California is the most developed state economically in the United States and its economic developments determine its fate.”
Schwarzenegger expressed his desire in promoting cooperation between his state and the Russian Federation.
“We are more than interested to create a trade, put together a trade delegation and organize a trade mission to Russia and to help in anyway possible in order to improve and to build on an already fast growing economy in Russia,” the California governor told his Russian guest. “I think this will be very, very beneficial for both the state of California and also for Russia.”
Medvedev paid a visit to dynamic Silicon Valley where he met with the heads of some popular IT compnaies, including Twitter, which defines itself as a “micro-blogging” service, as well as Google, the popular search engine portal, before meeting with the US Chamber of Commerce.
It is now possible to follow the Russian president on Twitter.
Medvedev stressed before his arrival that his trip would not be an “excursion,” but rather an opportunity for forging relations with America’s leading technology companies and executives.
“I would like to see how everything functions there. It will not be an excursion. I would like to establish fully-fledged relations as a result of this trip,” he said.
Silicon Valley, located near San Jose, California, is a name that has been given to the region due to the prevalence of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers. Today it is a world leading high-tech hub.
The Russian president also gave a speech at Stanford University.
Russia on the fast track
Following the precipitous collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia watched from the sidelines as many of its brightest minds bolted for the emergency exits in search of fatter paychecks and career opportunities.
But today, with the country posed for a dramatic economic revival thanks in part to robust oil reserves, as well as a modern approach to doing business, Russia hopes to entice some of its talented emigrants back to the Motherland, while providing attractive incentives for keeping its IT wunderkinds gainfully employed at home.
Medvedev, 44, has displayed a personal affinity for social media as a way of reaching out to Russia’s 142 million-strong population. He maintains an Internet video blog and holds regular Q&A sessions through the use of email and video-conferencing technologies.
During the Russian president’s state of the nation address to the Federal Assembly, Medvedev mentioned the importance of Russia establishing a research and technological center similar to Silicon Valley.
“We need to complete work on proposals to form a powerful center for research and development, which would focus on the support of all priority spheres,” Medvedev said. “This will offer conditions to attract leading scientists, engineers, constructors, programmers, managers and financial workers.”
Russia already has several intellectual centers comparable to Silicon Valley. The best-known is Akademgorodok (Academy Town), which is located about 20 km from the city of Novosibirsk. The town was founded in 1950 under the auspices of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Today, it remains a bustling intellectual hub that hosts about 35 research institutes, including the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics and the Institute of Cytology and Genetics.
The Siberian science city even got an honorable mention in The Wall Street Journal.
“Today, the number of high-tech companies in Akademgorodok is growing by 15% a year,” the US business daily reported (Russia’s Siberian Hi-tech haven, March 19, 2007). “The Kremlin is keen to capitalize further on the high-tech talent, and has pledged to invest $100 million in the town’s infrastructure. The area is home to companies like Screen Photo Electronic Instruments, which produces night-vision devices for a San Francisco firm… and Axmor, a partner of IBM and spinoff of Novosoft.”
Russia is also investing heavily in Skolkovo, a modern technology campus situated just outside Moscow. With budget allocations in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the project has attracted the interest of entrepreneurs and scientists. Last week in St. Petersburg, Russia secured a pledge from Silicon Valley's Cisco Systems Inc. to participate in the ambitious venture.
Medvedev is now in Washington where he will meet with US President Barack Obama.
The leaders plan to discuss the coordination of the START ratification, disarmament and non-proliferation and key international and regional issues, including the situation at the Korean Peninsula, as well as in Iran.
"These full-fledged talks will cover the matters of bilateral relations and basic international problems," Russia's presidential aide, Sergei Prikhodko, told reporters.
The two leaders will then travel to Canada for the G8 and G20 summits.
23.06.2010, 17:42
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Welcome to America Mr Medvedev. I hope you enjoy your visit. I see this as a very positive venture and wish you and Russia well.
June 23, 2010, 18:12, Bogdanov wrote > I think, California would hugely benefit from cooperation with Russia in two areas -- high-tech and agricultural products. The only obstacle I see -- the paranoid American Cold Warriors and neocons which can and will try to sabotage such cooperation (e.g. using such well-known cleshays as "Russians are stealing American technologies" and similar). I think, California, spiritually and by its lifestyle is pretty similar to Russia. In fact, in my opinion, it is closer to Russia than to the eastern parts of the US. At least, based on my own experience. Well, let's hope that the "Cold warriors and neocons", regardless of whether they are American or Russian, don't win the day, and that cooperation in technology between the two countries can make a quantum leap. I have lived in California and the USA East Coast, and I was virtually shocked to see your statement about the California lifestyle and spirit being close to Russian. Historically, California has been the most liberal and Avant garde of all of the States; things frequently begin in California and migrate across the country. I have never had the privilege of visiting Russia, but that is not the picture I have of Russian society ( I know, I have been brain-washed by the western media.). But, it is always a pleasure to read your posts, Bognavov.
Larry, I think that any genuine forward looking American or Russian, wants a very succesful relationship between our countries. We are actually very close in many ways, but different in other ways. Indeed that is the richness of the tapestry of the world. The relationship has moved on to focussing on common ground of mutual intetersts, and managing the differences so they don't impinge significantly on the commonalities. Any smart cookie, just needs look around the world, and think what community they want to be part of, what critical mass of values and ideas do they want to subscribe too. What relationships will move everyone to a better place. Only a dummy with some self interest wants the game to stay as it is. For they only care about their three score and ten on this earth and their DNA surviving - the classic animal! But the differences need managing as I say. In this context, we really have to be careful, mixing Russian and US business people. Not becuase it's not a good idea, but becuase they need understand each others business approach and language and gradually come to a common way of working and understanding. If we do not do this, then contracts will be signed.... But then friction will arise, and it will be counterproduct and threaten the very positive vector we are trying to generate. I have seen some of the greatest friction generated in East-West contracts, not by what has been written down, but what each party thinks is the correct way the contract should run after signing, and it generally revolves around freedom, monitoring and trust. So lets make sure we have people in the process with experience who can mediate, who have worked through this process many times. We need run this by a few times with support to get it right. Then we will have real process capability and a real working system. Don't neglect the process and the people and cultures that drive the honouring of contracts. A bare paper contract never made anything!