
Russia Plans a Science City Modeled on Silicon Valley - mjfern
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/business/global/11russia.html
======
ruslan
I live in Russian and am running an IT startup. I can tell you that nobody
here in Russia takes these kinds of things seriously. It's clear even to a
first grade kid that the only goal to almost any government endeavor that has
"sience" or "nano" as part of its name, is to steal money from tax payers.
It's also clear that Silicon Valley is rather a social phenomenon which cannot
be reproduced by simply pouring tons of money, and this is the only way
Russian govnt learnt to act for past decade.

What's more, we do not need any Silicon Valleys, it's not meant for Russians,
it will not work under any conditions on Russian grounds.

------
lsb

      Mr. Surkov says the new city will isolate new businesses
      from the bureaucracy that handcuffs the Russian economy today.
    

Why not fix that bureaucracy instead, and let all businesses around Russia
experience that freedom?

~~~
anamax
> Why not fix that bureaucracy instead, and let all businesses around Russia
> experience that freedom?

Bureaucracy has its benefits, mostly localized and easy for its recpients to
percieve. Killing it has diffuse benefits that its recipients often can't see.

~~~
ruslan
Bureaucracy is a part of human nature and it cannot be fixed. Neither in
Russian nor in any other country. Once it's there it cannot be eliminated,
unless you kill half the country population.

Same is true for corporate sector.

------
wslh
Interesting to compare with: \- <http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html>
\- <http://www.paulgraham.com/america.html>

------
bedris
As Yakov Smirnoff would have probably said:

In America, you found company. In Soviet Russia, company founds you!

