Russian President to Visit Silicon Valley , CA

Russian President to Visit Silicon Valley Before Meeting Obama

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev uses a touch screen during a video-link at the Gorki presidential residence outside Moscow, 07 Jun 2010
Photo: AP

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev uses a touch screen during a video-link at the Gorki presidential residence outside Moscow, 07 Jun 2010

Share This

Related Articles

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will be in the United States in the next few days. His visit will focus on economic and trade matters.

The high point of President Medvedev's stay in the United States will be his visit to Silicon Valley - an area in northern California known for its high-tech companies, venture capitalists and forward-looking entrepreneurs.

Experts, such as Robert Legvold from Columbia University, say Mr. Medvedev is trying to generate interest in his plan to create a Russian Silicon Valley in the suburbs of Moscow known as the Skolkova Innovation Initiative.

"That area of Skolkova, where the Skolkova School of Business and Management is located, has a fair amount of acreage," he said. "So when Medvedev committed himself to the idea of creating a Silicon Valley, and there were a number of parts, different cities in Russia that vied for its location, it was decided to put it in this park. I think the notion is that there will be some link between the businesses and research centers that are created and the school."

David Kramer, former senior State Department official in the George W. Bush administration, says the Russian president will be in northern California to try and form business partnerships and to learn how Silicon Valley got started.

"He's looking for investment. He's looking for expertise and know-how," he said. "He's looking to form consortiums and alliances with the private sector, with the universities."

"And the question is how much interest there really will be and how much money there might be, at least from the outside. There's money in Russia that can be provided to fund some of this, but how much money from the West is there in supporting this kind of initiative? Those are questions that don't have answers yet," he added.

Skolkova initiative

Analysts say President Medvedev's idea of creating a Russian Silicon Valley is tied to his broader plan to modernize the country's economy.

"There is a realization at the end of the day that despite all the profits that Russia got from its sale of oil and gas over the last 10 years, that unless it modernizes its economy and reforms it, it will be a declining power," said John Parker [expressing his own, personal views] with the National Defense University. "So there is what seems to be a growing body of opinion in Russia among leadership circles that Russia has to start investing in its own technology sector."

For that to work, Parker says the Skolkova initiative must be copied throughout Russia. "The danger is that it would just be a very confined experiment," he said. "You really need system-wide Skolkovas - Silicon Valley - otherwise it ends up just like under Catherine the Great when they imported a lot of German tradesmen and planted them in various settlements - but they were fairly self-contained. To really do the trick, Skolkova can't be self-contained. Its rules have to apply to all of Russian society, to all of Russia's economy."

After visiting Silicon Valley, President Medvedev comes to Washington for a brief summit with President Barack Obama.

Bilateral relations

Experts such as David Kramer say relations between the two countries are good. "The Obama administration touts the U.S.-Russian relationship as one of its major foreign policy successes," he said. "I wonder whether that says more about the rest of its foreign policy than about the U.S.-Russian relationship."

"But having said that, relations are certainly better than they were at the end of 2008, when there were significant tensions between Moscow and Washington in the aftermath of the Russia-Georgia war. And so the tone and environment are much better than they were," he continued.

Experts say the two sides also will discuss a host of other issues, including arms control after the recent signing of the New START Treaty, what to do about Iran following tougher United Nations sanctions, as well as trade and economic questions.

Related report by VOA's Elizabeth Lee

0

Views: 44

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

Comment by Swtnlovabl on June 21, 2010 at 9:55pm
ok we have Russian fully armed ships in SF bay.... President of Russia in San Jose tomorrow ........ and military tanks roaming the streets late night !!!!!!! ok im alittle scared now ...

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

Less Prone commented on Doc Vega's blog post Was Sabotage or Terrorism used in the Collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge?
"Perfect for destroying the supply chain. It could well have been intentional."
10 hours ago
Less Prone favorited Doc Vega's blog post Was Sabotage or Terrorism used in the Collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge?
10 hours ago
Doc Vega posted blog posts
12 hours ago
rlionhearted_3 posted photos
15 hours ago
rlionhearted_3 favorited Doc Vega's photo
15 hours ago
tjdavis posted a video

Alabama’s Biggest Secret - Operation Paperclip 🇺🇸

In the north of Alabama is the city of Huntsville. It's here where German scientists built NASA in secrecy after World War II. Operation Paperclip is still s...
19 hours ago
tjdavis posted a photo
20 hours ago
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post Americans You’re Being Squeezed Out!
"Cheeki kea always nice to her you chime in and you're damn right! "
yesterday
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post Americans You’re Being Squeezed Out!
"Les Prone thanks for your support Dude! "
yesterday
Doc Vega posted a photo

The inconvenient truth

Trump spells it out!
yesterday
Sandy posted a photo
Wednesday
Less Prone favorited Doc Vega's blog post What Made the Founding Fathers of America so Brilliant?
Tuesday
Less Prone commented on Doc Vega's blog post Why didn't the Archeological World Announce Proof that Jesus Lived?
"Motives of Joe, to shit in the well by showing totally irrelevant proof?"
Tuesday
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post Why didn't the Archeological World Announce Proof that Jesus Lived?
"Less, Motives of Wyatt or Joe? What archeologist wouldn't want proof of Jesus as part of his…"
Tuesday
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post Why didn't the Archeological World Announce Proof that Jesus Lived?
"Less Prone, Considering Joe Rogan to be the gatekeeper of anything is just short of ridiculous the…"
Tuesday
Doc Vega posted a blog post
Tuesday
MAC posted a video

Don't Go To Hong Kong Now (Even on Connecting Flights)

Secure your privacy with Surfshark! Enter coupon code laowhy86 for an extra 3 months free at https://Surfshark.deals/laowhy86Article 23 in Hong Kong is real,...
Tuesday
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's video
Thumbnail

Terrorist Attack on Moscow - Ukraine Committing Suicide? | Larry C. Johnson

"...And I guess I'll just park this you tube here also for something to ponder from last year.…"
Tuesday
tjdavis posted photos
Tuesday
Less Prone posted a video

Climate: The Movie (The Cold Truth) NL

Deze nieuwe documentaire van de Britse filmmaker Martin Durkin toont aan dat klimaatalarm een verzonnen doembeeld is zonder enige wetenschappelijke basis. He...
Monday

© 2024   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted