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Mr Kallasvuo noted that Nokia could become one of the project’s official cofounders and establish in Skolkovo a centre to coordinate research projects in software development. At the same time this centre could be used as a demonstration site for the achievements made together with Russian universities, as well as for technology the company develops in collaboration with its partners.

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Kallasvuo, I would like to welcome you and say that we are quite familiar with the activities of your corporation, which was present in our nation back in the USSR times and intensified its operation in St Petersburg in the early 1990s. But what’s particularly meaningful for us is that Nokia is a major taxpayer in Russia. Given the popularity of your brand and the market situation, the corporation annually pays about 12 billion rubles [$400 million] in taxes in the Russian Federation out of its revenues generated by its operations in Russia.

We are glad that you are participating in various projects. As far as I understand, you have a certain interest in our Skolkovo Innovation Centre project. Let’s discuss all of this. If you have any questions, I would be pleased to answer them.

President and CEO of Nokia Corporation OLLI-PEKKA KALLASVUO: Mr President, thanks very much for noting some of the achievements Nokia has made. Thank you for your kind words.

Let me also express my gratitude for having the opportunity to discuss with you Nokia’s contribution to Russia’s modernisation agenda and the collaboration and cooperation we are having with Russian universities and also with the R&D communities.

Nokia has extensive knowledge and experience when it comes to developing technologies that can cater to an ecosystem like Skolkovo, which we feel is a very important initiative.

We would be very pleased to become one of the original founders of Skolkovo, and would also be pleased to be able to contribute in a board position. That would give us the best possible ability to contribute to this project, like I said, which is extremely important, in my opinion, when it comes to Russia’s transformation.

We also intend to have a physical presence in Skolkovo and to use that as a centre for connecting our different research and development activities in Russia, and in that way, to use that to exhibit what we have been achieving also together with different universities in the country. And definitely, we could also use that as a showroom for the technologies we or our counterparts have developed.

Dmitry Medvedev: I think that these are very good plans. I would be happy if they are implemented. Certainly, we would be delighted to see you among the official co-founders and within the administration, precisely because Nokia is truly a very major company that offers very good products, has a solid reputation on the Russian market, and is known to just about every Russian citizen. I in fact recall that my first mobile phone was a Nokia.

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