Journal of the National Research University Higher School of Economics

According to statistics in 2005, there were 813,000 people in Russia employed in research and development. A gloomy picture comparing with 1.5 million in 1992. The share of expenditure on research and development in the country's GDP takes 30th place in the world, R&D costs per scientist is about 19 thousand dollars a year compared to 100 thousand dollars in China, 131 thousand dollars in Germany and 147 thousand dollars in Korea. Russia occupies 11^th position in the ranking of countries by number of publications in leading journals of the world. The absence of drastic positive change in science hinders economic development. So what might encourage them to start? The editors asked Yevgeny Yassin to comment the historical context that led to the current situation in domestic science, as well as share his opinion on the way out of this situation.