At least half a million scientists have left Russia over the past decade because of pitifully low wages, a senior science figure said on Thursday.
The scientists ”have left for long-term contracts abroad, and practically none of them have returned,” head of the scientists’ union at the Academy of Sciences, Viktor Kalinushkin said.
Russian researchers who find work abroad earn between
$3 000 and $7 000 a month, compared to an average wage of 3 000 roubles in Russia, he said.
The most popular destinations are Japan, the United States, Britain, Canada, France and Germany, according to Kalinushkin.
Russian physicists, biologists and chemists as well as computer programmers are the most sought after abroad.
”Around 30% of Microsoft’s last products have been
designed by Russian programmers,” he said.
Russian science, once a world leader during the Soviet era, could soon become virtually extinct due to a lack of funds and the post-Communist ”brain drain”, Deputy Science Minister Mikhail Kirpichnikov warned in March.
More than 200 000 scientists have left Russia in recent years while the majority of equipment in the country’s laboratories has not been replaced since 1991, according to official figures.
Russia’s budgetary spending on science is now only 20% of what it was in 1992. – Sapa-AFP