Russia has two misfortunes - roads and Skolkovo

I, like most of them, are extremely skeptical about the idea of ​​creating an analogue of a silicon valley in the Moscow region. But when Medvedev enlisted the support of Steve Jobs himself (who, by the way, the Russian market is not very pleased), I thought. It seems that this project has gone too far, and it is doomed to implementation. Absolute majority "minus" the idea of ​​a silicon valley. But over time, skepticism subsides. There are not many reasons to believe in the project of the mythical Skolkovo, the main ones are the increased interest of those in power, and, accordingly, a huge budget ($ 5 billion). Critics of the project, as a rule, point to the problem of corruption in Russia. Corruption in Russia takes place, but because of this, it is not worth while waving a hand on any state initiative. I decided to summarize the most weighty arguments of the critics of Silicon Valley. Interest fueled by rumors that the Russian media imposed a tacit ban on criticism of Skolkovo.

The main problem, as I said, is corruption. It is too tempting to grab a piece of such a large pie. Alexey Navalny, a lawyer, a minority shareholder of Gazprom and Rosneft, commented: “We must do something with the greatest showing, convenience for your calf, and at the same time saw at least 30%. That's all".

The second argument in the skeptics arsenal is unjustified enthusiasm. From scratch, in a clean field, kick out such a project. Scientific and technological parks for the most part - an urban phenomenon. 66% of modern science parks are located in the city, and 27% are in sufficient proximity to it, at a distance of up to 50 km.
')
The third argument was most correctly formulated by Sergey Aleksashenko, former Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, Director of the HSE for Macroeconomic Research. “People who know Russian history will remember that it was precisely this way of organizing scientific and technical work that was recognized by the Soviet regime as the most adequate: first, to put scientists in prison or camp (so they knew how much a pound of dashing), then pile them up, put guards in conditions for work inside the territory enclosed by barbed wire. Kurchatov, Korolev, and Tupolev, and many others went through this. ”

His opinion was expressed at the Massachusetts Technical University, in which representatives of Skolkovo went for a consultation. "Without creating normal conditions for the functioning of the entire economy, without the development of competition, nothing will come of it."

Matt Marshall, the founder of the portal Venture Beat, expressed his thought: investing in Russian high-tech is insane!

The pro-rector of the New Economic School, Alexei Sitnikov, in an interview with Forbes magazine noted: The state should play a key role, but not dominate.

I'm sending with Ebay for 3 months now, what kind of silicon valley are we talking about ?!