The Russian final of the Imagine Cup will be held in Nizhny Novgorod

It looks like Nizhny Novgorod is becoming the peripheral capital of Russian high-tech. This is the first region of Russia where the authorities directly on the municipal server laid out for download distributions Mandriva Linux. Intel has an R & D center in Nizhny, and now Microsoft has paid tribute to this city, announcing the holding of the Russian final of the international student cup technology Imagine Cup. The event will take place in April 2010.

From the press release : “Microsoft’s proposal was met with approval, since it was not the first year that the Nizhny Novgorod student teams were being prepared at the prestigious international technology competition on the basis of the Microsoft Innovation Center at UNN. UNN teams repeatedly entered the Russian competition finals and won prizes, and in 2009 the team from UNN won first place in Russia and second place in the world in the most difficult category of the Software Projects competition, - said Nikolay Pryanishnikov, Microsoft President in Russia.

This news came after Pryanishnikov met with the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Valery Shantsev. What other issues were discussed at the meeting is not known. But the server spo.nnov.ru , where Mandriva distributions used to be located, is now suspiciously empty.