FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Putin Says Major Scientific Projects ‘Unite and Mobilize, Become Engines for Moving Forward’
Feb. 11, 2018 (EIRNS)—At a Feb. 8 meeting of Russia’s Council for Science and Education in Novosibirsk, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia is “actively involved in preparations to set up these [international scientific] centers,” such as the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. “However, we need to establish such centers of our own.” He endorsed the idea of setting up such a center in Novosibirsk: “I believe that’s the right idea. We will be sure to think about this and implement this project.” Putin stated:
“We need to continue boosting cooperation with other countries and increase the openness of our science.... The most important thing is that the path to science should begin for young people during their school years.”
Putin mentioned mega-science projects that have been launched in Gatchina, Dubna, Troitsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk, and said:
“This sort of infrastructure should become the basis for large-scale research programs, and the center of scientific cooperation for the entire Eurasian space.... As regards big projects, we need large-scale undertakings in the country as a whole. They normally unite and mobilize and become engines for moving forward.”
Also of note was President Putin’s visit to Siberia this past week, during which, on Feb. 8, he congratulated scientists in the Academy of Sciences on Russia Science Day. This year is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Siberian Branch of the Academy. In 1958, on the initiative of the scientists, this now-largest branch of the Academy was founded at a great distance from European Russia, and in an isolated region with large areas with virtually no population, for testing the Soviet Union’s new arsenal of nuclear weapons. The “closed cities” in the east housed some of the most advanced scientific and military projects in the world.
During his trip, President Putin visited the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk. He toured the laboratories and met with students at Novosibirsk University. The institute, named for scientist Gersh Budker, was established in May 1958 as one of the first scientific institutes of the Siberian Branch of the Academy. The Budker Institute conducted groundbreaking research in an array of directed-energy technologies, such as ion and plasma beams, for the Soviet Union’s missile defense program, as outlined in the U.S. Labor Party 1977 pamphlet commissioned by Lyndon LaRouche, “Sputnik of the Seventies: The Science Behind the Soviets’ Beam Weapon.” Today, the focus of the 2,800 researchers at the institute is on high-energy physics, plasma physics, and controlled thermonuclear fusion research.
President Putin also held a meeting with scientists from the Siberian Branch of the Academy, who presented proposals for new large-scale scientific experiments, and appeals to the President to modernize laboratory facilities, and embark on a series of great projects in science. Valentin Parmon, chairman of the Siberian Branch, told the President that “Russia has not implemented a single major research project in recent decades,” and stressed that it was important to do in order to “provide fertile ground to make sure our young people stay in Russian science.”
