Posted on 01/03/2006 8:24:01 PM PST by jb6
MOSCOW: Andrei Aleyev is just the kind of promising young scientist that President Vladimir Putin says he wants to persuade to stay in Russia. So, thanks to Putin, his salary will rise over the next four years ... by $200.
Already earning $800 a month at his prestigious nuclear physics lab, 22-year-old Aleyev is doing well by Russian standards.
But that means he will see little difference when Putin's policy on stopping the country's brain drain takes effect, with $1,000 salaries being phased in for the best researchers between 2006 and 2010.
While many impoverished scientists here would dream of Aleyev's salary, he could make at least three times as much simply by going abroad after he finishes his PhD, casting into doubt the effectiveness of the Kremlin's attempt to stem the brain drain.
Already some 500,000 scientists have emigrated since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, losing the state billions of dollars in potential revenue.
The flow has slowed over recent years, though worryingly for Russia it is no longer the older Soviet generation that is leaving, but younger, better-paid new talent.
"For now, I do well here," said Aleyev, a passionate physicist who observes atoms daily on a 1.5-million-dollar tomographic atomic probe bought through foreign contacts and the personal efforts of his lab's director.
"I have no plans on leaving, but this may come," added the young researcher, already viewed by his superiors as one of the Moscow Theoretical and Experimental Physics Institute's (ITEP) chief hopes.
Promises of higher salaries and greater investment in scientific education and lab equipment are welcomed by scientists, but they are concerned about the conditions attached, including a policy of encouraging privatisations, while restricting trips abroad.
Foreign contacts have proved important for breathing life into the troubled Russian scientific establishment, now increasingly integrated into the world's science community.
Alexander Golubev, 47, of ITEP's plasma physics laboratory regularly goes to Germany where his lab nets well-paying research contracts.
"I earn $1,000 a month, and a good part of that comes from my work abroad," he said.
ITEP, nestled in an enclosure of a 18th-century tsarist palace, is one of the few former Soviet research institutes to adapt, though not without its difficulties, to the new economic realities.
Its director, Boris Sharkov, admits to being a master of the art of chasing after scientific grants.
Though once top secret, ITEP now collaborates with nearly a dozen European institutes, work that brings in about 30 per cent of its budget.
A good measure of a society is how it treats its talented citizens who are without political or family connections.
1000/yr isn't exactly a show of force.
That's $1,000 in a country where the average salary is $380. Remember, it's not the amount of dollars its what those dollars will buy you. A loaf of good quality bread costs around 30 American cents.
That's $1,000 in a country where the average salary is $380. Remember, it's not the amount of dollars its what those dollars will buy you. A loaf of good quality bread costs around 30 American cents.
Or in other words, $1,000 would be sorta like making $96842 in the US, if accepting that the average US salary is $36,800.
Tech companies in Russia have a 14% corporate rate. They've also cut VAT and Payroll taxes and income taxes are at 13% flat. They've also cut the size of government.
A higher salary doesn't mean a lot if it only makes you more of a target for your family members to be kidnapped for ransom by the mob.
Yes, he can afford a car and a house, especially since most of these scientists do not live in Moscow and live in places where the salaries are much lower and so is the cost of living. Ford produces $8,000 Focuses in Russia and financing is available. There are a bunch of local and other foreign manufacturers in Russia too.
Hey did you see Yitzak Smirnoff?
No but I heard Vladimir Putin!!
Break out a Matchski
Heh, I've been there, and love the prices (I lived like a king for a month in rural Russia spending only about 1000 dollars).
My programmer friend there makes about 250 a month. (It's all contract work though so it's sporadic).
I don't think 1000/month will stop young unmarried folks from leaving Russia if they are given the oppurtunity, though it may make some stop actively searching for one.
Personally I'm worried about both emmigration, as well as abortion rates.
I think Putin should ban abortion until the population rate corrects, and give tax breaks for children.
$1.00 an hour for two years.
Nobody buys houses in Russia they purchase flats. They cost around 30 to 75 grand cash. Precious few sell on credit in Russia, although it's becoming popular (albeit with payments like 1000+ per month).
Most of my Russian freinds have cars, apartments are like 8 bucks a month to rent for Russians. All my Russian freinds have computers also.
I have never heard of a 'bread subsidy'. It's all baked loafs, you can only get sliced bread in supermarkets, most people have unsliced bread and slice it themselves. It's good stuff, although it's a pain to cut.
It cost me 50 bucks including tip and 3 rounds of alcohol (at least 2 bottles worth of vodka) for my birthday party in Russia with 6 of my freinds, appetizers, and meal, desert. We went all out and it would cost at least 100 for two people in our state capital (this was the capital of the republic I was in at the time).
I'v never heard of anyone being kidnapped for pulling in 200 a month.
The government there also gives incentives for kids though I think if you gave people a 100% break from income tax for 2 years after each kid is born, it would move things along.
Not quite true. Most people own dachas, country houses ranging from shacks to mansions. A dacha 100+ km from Moscow can be bought for around $10-15k with an acre plus of land. The further from major cities, the cheaper. In Siberia, they'll pay you to move out there.
Mortgages are also available, started by a US company and spreading quickly with now 10% down and 20 year credits.
apartments are like 8 bucks a month to rent for Russians
Most people own their own apartments. That was a gift of the disolved Soviet Union. Everyone who was registered in an apartment became an owner.
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