The heyday after the disaster
Russian scientists urgently need three billion dollars for illegal activities
Alexey Aleksenko, "Snob"
For links, see the original article.
Two and a half years ago, Russia adopted a law banning genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This event can be treated in two ways. We have stated our position in two notes (the first and the second), the meaning of which is in general terms as follows: to ban genetic engineering in Russia is just as pointless as to ban consumer electronics in the Golden Horde. Whatever Russian geneticists may imagine about themselves, there has never been any special genetic engineering here, and the one that was cannot have consequences due to objective historical laws.
But there is another position. It was formulated recently at the anniversary party of the "Snob" project by Anatoly Borisovich Chubais. The Chairman of the Board of Rusnano was asked to whom he would award the "Made in Russia" anti–award - that is, a symbolic award for the most incompetent and harmful work of the last decade. Anatoly Borisovich did not hesitate to call the ban on GMOs.
Anatoly Borisovich had a huge choice – after all, he is a citizen of a country that seized part of the territory of a neighboring state by force, completely destroyed its international reputation and elected the author of these impressive initiatives as president for the fourth time. And if out of such an abundance of opportunities Chubais chose the law banning GMOs, there is something to think about.
But before we had time to think about it, we were distracted by a curious document – the draft Federal Program for the Development of Genetic Technologies. In short, its meaning is this: the Ministry of Education and Science asks the Russian people for about $ 3 billion for the development of genetics. And not some theoretical one, but the one that we, together with the readers of "Snob", said goodbye to in July 2016.
The project is designed for 9 years (from 2019 to 2027) and assumes to solve several large-scale tasks for the above-mentioned money. It seems that the most important of these tasks is to start doing everything again that was prohibited by the law of 03.07.2016 No. 358–FZ.
However, closer to the text. The project sets the following goals for Russian science. It is necessary to increase "the number of highly productive lines, varieties, breeds of agricultural plants and animals created on the basis of genetic technologies, resistant to adverse environmental conditions and diseases, with improved nutritional and technological properties" to 60 pieces by 2027. "Targeted genetic technologies" will be developed for 25 species of economically significant organisms. As many as 17 genetic technologies should be brought to the "commercialization stage".
Now in simple words: this project involves the creation of new GMOs, including animals and plants. These animals and plants must leave the walls of laboratories and achieve "commercialization" in the fields and pastures of the motherland. That is, GMOs will graze and graze. Moreover, due to their "improved nutritional properties", they are destined to become the food of an unlucky Russian taxpayer.
Recall how Article 50(1) of the Federal Law on Environmental Protection has been sounding since July 2016:
"It is prohibited to grow and breed plants and animals whose genetic program has been modified using genetic engineering methods and which contain genetically engineered material, the introduction of which cannot be the result of natural processes, except for the cultivation and breeding of such plants and animals during examinations and research."
It is obvious that it will not be possible to peacefully combine the three-billion-dollar program of resuscitation of Russian genetics with this law: either one or the other. The authors of the draft Federal Program did not remember this, and in their draft not only the notorious law, but just in case, the stigmatized abbreviation of GMOs is not mentioned anywhere. Nevertheless, you can't just take and violate several federal laws at once. It logically follows that the notorious GMO law should be abolished or at least modified on the sly. This consideration at least explains the public statement of A. B. Chubais – he is a state man and will not just blurt out.
Has this law managed to bring real harm in its short century? Dear participant of the "Snob" project Anton Gopka, founder of the ATEM Capital venture fund, believes that he has managed. He even estimates the extent of this harm. A simple calculation: if a certain technological direction is first banned, and then $ 3 billion is allocated for its restoration, then it is necessary to estimate the damage from the ban at three billion.
To us, from our dilettante bell tower, this seems to be a kind of exaggeration. There were no special genetic technologies here before the adoption of the law, and it is unlikely that they will appear now. The planned indicators, determined with such colossal accuracy (exactly 17 genetic engineering technologies, exactly 6 domestic prototypes of devices, etc.), most likely mean that these technologies and these prototypes are already hidden somewhere from the eyes on the vast territory of the Kurchatov Institute, which, according to the project, will be appointed the manager of the money.
God grant us to make mistakes, but it seems that the three billion in question is not at all the damage from a stupid PR law, one of hundreds adopted by respected deputies, but just another suitcase of money intended for division and subsequent consumption. It's good that some of them will go to scientists. Everything else is bad.
And the following figures will tell us a lot about the brilliant prospects of Russian genetics. According to the project, we will have to increase the share of Russian scientific developments in world genetic science from 0.07% this year to 1% in 2027. We are talking about a country whose population today is about 2% of all mankind. One can only hope that by 2027, this share will just be halved due to natural mortality and emigration. Then parity will finally be achieved: Russians will begin to make the same contribution to world science on average as the average inhabitant of the planet, including the bushmen of South Africa and the citizens of Bangladesh suffering from hunger diarrhea. But let's remind, it takes three billion dollars.
It is difficult to write such a long note while maintaining a sarcastic grin: the jaw begins to hurt. It's time to change your facial expression. So, the author happened to live a significant part of his life in the USSR – a country of monstrous, unimaginable hypocrisy, which provided material for all the main dystopias of the twentieth century. When its shameful end is called a "geopolitical catastrophe," we can only spit on the speaker's shoe with disgust. But here we see a lot of signs suggesting that it's time to sum up the results of the next historical period. The history of Russian genetic engineering is an interesting, as they say in business, show case. In the sense that there's nowhere else to go.
We ended that long-standing note on the adoption of the notorious law with the following passage:
"Let's hope that genetic engineering science will continue to receive funding and will safely survive until the day when the status of the world leader of intellectual degradation and obscurantism will no longer seem honorable to my compatriots. I'd like to make it to this day, too. But there are still few encouraging signs."
In part, the forecast comes true, but with a significant caveat: there are no more encouraging signs.
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