CHELYABINSK. Feb 16 (Interfax) - Russia must reduce its demand for imports, especially in critical sectors, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said at a conference on national security in Chelyabinsk.
"We should do whatever we can today to bolster Russia's ability to pursue an independent domestic and foreign policy and further strengthen its national sovereignty. We also must overcome dependence on imports, primarily in areas affecting national security and the functioning of our society," Patrushev said.
Russia should fully use the existing potential for the accelerated development of its own science and technology sector, he said.
"It's important to point out that technological sovereignty doesn't mean isolation. Reliability and safety of partner ties based primarily on friendly inter-state relations is a decisive factor in international technological cooperation," he said.
"There has been an escalation of sanction pressure" after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, and this has worsened problems related to the Russian economy's dependence on foreign know-how, equipment, and components, he said.
"At the present time, Russia depends on foreign manufacturers of multiple types of high-technology products, where we've lost our own scientific and production potential to a large degree," Patrushev said.
The share of imported equipment and components remains high in the machine-tool industry, heavy engineering, the pharmaceutical sector, and in manufacturing medical equipment, he said.
Patrushev also listed factors that have led to this situation. In particular, he said, the appropriations for research and development have been inadequate.
"The blockage by unfriendly countries of world-class scientific research in Russia is negatively affecting domestic science. The Russian scientific community's access to the latest scientific and technical achievements and international databases has been restricted," he said.
The development of Russia's scientific and industrial potential is also being hampered by "the enterprises' inertia in orienting themselves toward foreign suppliers," he said.
"The enterprises' innovative activity remains low. The share of funds spent on the modernization and reconstruction of their production assets is insignificant. A shortage of trained scientific personnel, engineers, and blue-collar workers has been observed," he said.
In the new geo-economic and geopolitical realities, the Russian president has endorsed a course toward directing the country onto a trajectory of real technological independence, the government is taking measures to mitigate the threats of foreign companies' leaving the Russian market, and the country is implementing anti-crisis measures to retain and restore the technological integrity of its economic system, he said.
"Twenty-five sectoral import-substitution plans have been drawn up. Major production and technology projects have been launched to substitute imports in the aircraft manufacturing and electronic industries," he said.
At the same time, law enforcement agencies keep uncovering corruption, embezzlement, and wasteful disbursement of funds in implementing some import-substitution projects, he said.
"Facts of corruption, embezzlement, and inefficient use of budget funds appropriated for import substitution projects have been uncovered," he said.