Putin's speech at the "Computing and Communications, Quantum World" forum | Russia
I considered it important to talk about how we build our work at the state level, how we build international scientific and technological cooperation in the conditions of the actual blockade announced by the authorities and the ruling elites of Russia, most likely the ruling elites, of some countries. Indeed, we have faced pressure, with attempts to force us to give up sovereignty, the right to choose our own historical path through the restriction of access to technology. Our opponents expected that we would retreat, that we would surrender. But, it will not be so, as we often say in such cases. Russia will only move forward, and in its own way, without isolating itself from anyone at the same time. We respond to external challenges only by strengthening the quality and efficiency of work, by spreading freedom.
By the way, this happened in 2014. I have already spoken about this. And everyone is well aware of this. When the first wave of external sanctions became an incentive for the rapid development of some of our areas, including agriculture. Today, similar positive processes are gaining momentum in industry and technology.
At the same time, we understand that in the current conditions, the main thing for advanced development is to focus efforts on priority tasks. First, in those areas where we already have global-level technologies and products, for example, in nuclear energy, in artificial intelligence, and in many other areas. Secondly, in those areas that are critical for the development of our country, and where we must, without fail, have our own competencies.
At the same time, we must have not just scientific developments and basic solutions, but the entire technological and production chain: our own equipment, element base, software, and, of course, people and personnel. Undoubtedly, while solving the problems of technological sovereignty, we are not going to withdraw into ourselves, as I said at the very beginning. On the contrary, we intend to create and expand equal, mutually beneficial technological and scientific alliances with other states. I note that during the Russian BRICS Chairmanship next year, we will be discussing with our partners such specific projects in a number of significant areas.
In particular, we are talking about advanced technologies for computing, processing, storing and transmitting data. I will dwell on this topic in more detail, if you will allow. Moreover, this issue is in the focus of attention of the Future Technologies Forum this year. Our principal task is to transfer the entire economy, the social sphere, government bodies, the work of government bodies to qualitatively new principles of work, to introduce management based on new data, based on big data. The effect, as we expect, will be in the full sense of the complex, multiplicative.
This is a multiple increase in the quality of management and labor productivity. These are jobs with advanced competencies and high wages. This is the availability of services, services. These are fundamentally different opportunities for our citizens, for people. Thus, digital platforms will make it possible to develop smart cities and unmanned systems, use digital twins of technical systems and their production processes, begin the widespread use of precision farming in agriculture, reach a new level in logistics and energy, in the development of telemedicine and online education, in provision of public services and financial transactions.
In general, platform solutions will open the way to fully automate not only technological processes, but also relationships between market participants. For such changes, everything related to data, with big data, is critical. In fact, we are talking about the backbone infrastructure for our further development, for the future of our economy as a whole. And, obviously, dependence in this area means serious threats to national security, this is the weakening and loss of the sovereignty of our country.
Of course, we must think about this and look to the future. I will say it straight: this is what some countries were striving for when they tried by any means to literally get our country hooked on foreign technological platforms and standards, and, admittedly, not without success. It is clear that interdependence is inevitable. It is clear that interdependence is an objective thing.
But, nevertheless, there is a difference between general words about openness and about your own shirt, which is closer to the body, and in practice we often see this difference. We bought many critical technologies in this area, as they say, in someone else's store, in a kind of supermarket of ready-made solutions made by someone. And at some point in front of us, they just tightly closed the door, and hung a sign - closed. We have learned the lessons, we have drawn the necessary conclusions. The government, public and private companies have already done a lot to change the situation. But, of course, we need to go further: we need to solve more complex, systemic tasks, we need to plan this work for a long time.
I propose to prepare a new national project for the period up to 2030 within a year, namely, a national project on the formation of a data economy. Let me emphasize that this is not only about consolidating existing tools to support the development of the digital economy, artificial intelligence and high-tech projects, including the roadmaps for the development of quantum technologies that you are talking about today, and which state-owned companies are trying to put into practice today, developments in this area to put into practice. It is necessary to build a holistic mechanism for the creation and widespread implementation of advanced developments. This actually applies to all technologies and spheres of life, of course. We talk a lot about this, we are gradually moving forward, we are solving these issues. But, we need to speed up such work as much as possible, including in such a direction as the formation of a data economy, which I have already mentioned.
Everything is significant here: research, training of personnel at all levels of education, creating conditions for the production and testing of pilot product samples, demand for domestic products and services in the field of computing and working with data, as well as flexible regulation and support for production. At the same time, it is fundamentally important to systematically look at the next technological order, it is necessary to create industries and markets of the future. It is in this logic that the national project for the development of unmanned aerial systems has been built. As we agreed with our colleagues, I ask you to approve it before September 1, 2023, and also, I ask you to take this priority into account when forming the budget for 2024 and for the planning period until 2026. Dear Colleagues. The new national project on the formation of the data economy should touch on all stages and levels of work.
The first is data collection. In particular, I mean highly sensitive sensors, including quantum sensors, which radically increase the accuracy of object positioning, which allow you to detect diseases at the earliest stages, which are used in other advanced areas, for example, in satellite and terrestrial communication systems. The second is data transmission, the development of communication systems. Moreover, not only the current, but also future generations, which, according to forecasts, will be able to transmit information in real time, which is critical for the development of robotics, for unmanned transport systems, and for automating the urban environment. The third is a sovereign infrastructure for computing and for storing data within our country.
First of all, we are talking about domestic cloud platforms and data processing centers that can effectively support the work of government agencies, enterprises, telecom operators, as well as computing power of their own production, including on qualitatively new principles. I mean computers, which we just talked about with colleagues, and what they showed me, using quantum and photonic technologies, which we will talk about later. The fourth is data security. Of course, we must fully take into account and keep this aspect in mind. In particular, I consider it necessary to continue work on the technologies of quantum communications and quantum encryption. Such technologies ensure the resistance of information systems to cyber attacks using both classical and quantum computers, they make it possible to create systems that are invulnerable to hacking, as well as to develop secure quantum communications.
By the way, Russia is among the leaders in this area. Of course, we are only taking the first steps in this area. Colleagues are now talking about it too. But, nevertheless, this is already a tangible and tangible result. The fifth is sovereign and national standards and protocols for working with data. Such standards are necessary for reliable processing and storage of data, including personal information of citizens, for the use of quantum cryptography technologies, for cyber security, and for protection against attacks.
The sixth is data processing and analysis algorithms, including artificial intelligence solutions, as well as domestic software. The presence of such national tools guarantees data sovereignty, it significantly reduces dependence on foreign providers, and it will increase control over critical infrastructure. And, of course, we need so-called code repositories, domestic platforms and services that are needed for the joint work of programmers not only from Russia, but also from other countries of the world. I would like to emphasize that work in all of the above areas should be aimed at systemically changing all sectors of the economy, the social sphere, public administration, and the quality of life of people throughout our country.
Dear Colleagues. Now I would like to specifically address quantum technologies, which are the main topic of today's discussion. Just now at the exhibition, and in a conversation with representatives of science, they tried to dedicate me to this in more detail. We need not only to solve current problems, but also to look ahead, to look beyond the horizon.
It is necessary to try to expand the possibilities of man, to control the smallest objects, to put the most complex physical processes at the service of progress. The quantum world is in no hurry to reveal all its secrets to us. But, domestic researchers are ready to solve the most complex scientific problems, open the way to creating advanced solutions.
And, of course, I will repeat this once again, we have just talked about this, we will support this aspiration. I ask within the framework of the national project on the formation of the data economy to determine measures to support basic research, including an increase in funding. Moreover, I mean scientific research on a wide range of computing technologies, many of which, as you know very well, work on the principles of quantum physics and mechanics. They are connected with the achievements of both the first and the second quantum revolution, which is developing before our eyes. Our presenter just told me about this at the exhibition, about the second quantum revolution, which became an incentive, among other things, for the creation of quantum computing technologies and quantum computers. However, according to all forecasts, promising computing systems will be exactly hybrid solutions, in which there is both the so-called quantum core and microelectronics technologies that have already become classical.
I will note that every ten years the performance of computers increases by about a thousand times. Integrated circuits today already contain tens of billions of transistors. The race here goes at exorbitant speeds.
For example, Sberbank's new supercomputer, called Christofari Neo, is capable of performing about 12 housand trillion operations per second, while Yandex's supercomputer, called Chervonenkis, is almost twice as powerful. Well, I know that these are not the first places in the world. But, in principle, these places are already quite noticeable, and this can be treated with respect: there is a development prospect. At the same time, the demand for computing resources continues to grow. And, our own sovereign solutions in this area are critically needed for the development of artificial intelligence systems, for the creation of large neural network models.
That is why it is so important for us to promote the domestic microelectronic industry. To this end, we are specifically engaged in the development of serial production for the production of ultra-pure materials and process media. Many people know that a new scientific and technological center is being created in Zelenograd. Projects on technological equipment are being implemented there, including with the participation of partners from Belarus. In this regard, I would like to remind you that it was the high level of cooperation in the Soviet era that provided the conditions for training engineering personnel to develop unique technologies for the development of outstanding scientific schools, including in the field of photonics. Thanks to the strong fundamental backlog today, photonic integrated circuits are already a full-fledged working technology.
An intersectoral cluster in the field of photonics is developing in Moscow, on the basis of which research centers, start-ups, businesses, and universities work together to create new solutions and put them into production. The same platforms for experiments with future technologies, for their testing and practical implementation, need to be created in other advanced areas, we need to work in other areas. I know that the government of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, is here in the hall, we have also repeatedly discussed this topic, the government of the capital has begun work on creating a Moscow quantum cluster.
And, I would ask you, dear Sergei Semyonovich, to tell us about this in detail today as well. Well, if not in detail, then at least in general terms. Dear Colleagues. I have repeatedly met with Russian scientists and with our compatriots who work in foreign universities and research centers. It was quite recently again.
Many people want to work in Russia, participate in interesting and significant research projects, including the question of resuming our mega-grant program, which just allows us to assemble strong research teams and solve interesting scientific problems. This proposal is fully supported by me. I ask the Government and the State Duma to ensure that the federal budget for the planning period until 2026 provides for the necessary funding for the mega-grant program, as well as to amend the parameters of the program in order to make its conditions even more attractive to researchers.
I consider it necessary to increase the maximum size of mega-grants, which is very important, and colleagues recently spoke to me about this, to increase the time frame for their implementation, say, to five years, but, some say, ten years would be good, up to five years from now with possibility of extension up to three years. This will be almost ten years in total. First of all, we need to support major scientific projects of our compatriots and leading foreign researchers, including those who have already participated in the creation of world-class laboratories in Russia. In five years, a scientist should receive a total of half a billion rubles for his project, provided that he is ready to work in our country on a permanent basis. Support in the amount of a quarter of a billion rubles over five years will be provided to leading foreign scientists who will come to Russia, who will create departments in our universities, who will be engaged in teaching activities, who will work with students and graduate students.
As a matter of fact, this is not much different from the previous conditions, but we will confirm them and expand them a little. As a result, our colleagues from abroad will form scientific schools in key, priority areas of science and technology development. Finally, another fundamentally new direction. As part of the updated mega-grant program, we will provide assistance to promising young researchers, including our compatriots who want to return to their homeland and make a significant contribution to scientific and technological solutions, and there are many of them. Let me emphasize that the updated mega-grant program should be launched in a short time. We will be glad to see researchers in our country who share the principle of openness of science, who devote their lives to scientific research, who are engaged in projects of the future.
For our part, we will do everything necessary to ensure that the developments of tomorrow today and already now become globally competitive products. And, I would like to thank everyone who is involved in the great joint work in this direction. Roscongress, in particular, for organizing our forum.
The Russian Quantum Center, the state-owned companies Rosatom and Russian Railways, whose leaders are represented here, innovative enterprises, leading research institutes and universities, I thank them for scientific and technological breakthroughs, for their constant striving to move forward. Separate words of gratitude for the Russian Academy of Sciences for a deep scientific assessment of research and technological projects. I ask you, dear colleagues, to expand not only expert, but also scientific and methodological support of our national development programs. I will add that this year the Russian Academy of Sciences turns 300 years old.
And, at the present stage of its development, the Russian Academy of Sciences unites scientists, business in solving the problems of scientific and technological sovereignty of our country. I hope that preparations for the next forum, which next year will be dedicated to the development of neuro-cognitive and biomedical technologies, will take place in this very close interaction. Thank you for your attention.
2023-07-20 19:21
