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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Sergeyev, I know that your colleagues in the Academy have prepared an annual report on the technology policy. Let us start with this report and then discuss other issues.

President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeyev: Thank you very much, Mr President, for this opportunity to meet with you.

Indeed, in accordance with the law on the Russian Academy of Sciences, we issue an annual report on the implementation of the state science and technology policy and the biggest achievements of Russian scientists. You can review them in this digest.

I would like to present several of the most important achievements of the previous year. Obviously, the circumstances this year are substantially different, and I should tell you about the Academy’s involvement in countering COVID-19. I will tell you about some interesting results we have concerning coronavirus tests, vaccines and medication.

And finally, I would like to discuss a very pressing issue – namely, scientific and technical expert review. As a matter of fact, our country is involved in some large-scale projects. We have national projects and a development strategy for various sectors of the economy. More often than not, they rely on modern technology and science.

Therefore, we believe that when it comes to scientific and scientific and technical expert reviews, we must ensure greater competence and higher objectivity. Since the Russian Academy of Sciences is our main research and expert organisation, I would like to discuss the following: the Academy should be able to not only review a great number of small projects (we conducted almost 18,000 expert reviews last year) but also take up serious expert responsibilities.

We think it is time to discuss the development of a project on scientific and technical expert reviews in the country, a project that would outline the responsibilities of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Of course, this work must, by all means, rely on modern technologies. Processes like collecting scientific and technical data, analysing the data and possible uses for the results of such analysis have significantly changed due to the fact that we have powerful computers and database management systems. These factors must be taken into account.

We are currently working with several organisations and institutes in the country on developing a fundamental basis for scientific and technical expert reviews. Among other things, this challenge comes down to infrastructure. So, I will also talk about some issues related to the infrastructure and ask for your assistance.

Vladimir Putin: Okay. What about the Academy’s work on countering COVID-19?

Alexander Sergeyev: I have a presentation on this matter.

I realise that you understand the situation quite well. Every day we see you holding meetings, and you do demonstrate excellent knowledge of the issue. But when it comes to some fundamental issues, we see problems that need to be addressed. These problems concern scientific research and organisation. I will first briefly review the achievements and then ask for your assistance with the problems.

Vladimir Putin: Alright.

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