OREANDA-NEWS. April 05, 2012. Transcript of the beginning of the meeting: Vladimir Putin: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start with an issue that we discussed in Togliatti yesterday – the development of our automotive industry. As you know, acting upon the recommendation of environmental organisations, in particular Greenpeace Russia, we have decided to introduce a disposal fee, which will also be levied on imported automobiles. After creating the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, we should coordinate such issues with colleagues in Kazakhstan and Belarus. I have spoken with the leadership in both countries today, including the presidents and the prime ministers, and they have supported our decision. The Economic Development Ministry will negotiate with our partners at the ministerial level in order to implement this decision within the framework of procedures pertaining to the Common Economic Space.

Let us start with updates. Mr Fursenko (Andrei Fursenko, Minister of Education and Science), please report on the implementation of the programme to attract leading scientists to Russian universities. We have attracted a large number of leading, world-renowned foreign scientists, including our former compatriots and foreign nationals, as part of one of our grant programmes, specifically the mega-grant one. How is this project proceeding?

Andrei Fursenko: Mr Putin, ladies and gentlemen. Ten days ago we held a meeting on so-called mega-grants to assess our performance last year. We invited several recipients of mega-grants who reported about the implementation of that project. Before we started, all projects were evaluated by international experts; they were selected upon the recommendation of Russian and foreign experts, and their implementation was evaluated likewise. Nearly all experts agree that this has been a successful project: 75 of the 77 projects were declared successful and 59 percent of them have already received funding. Experts had minor complaints about 16 projects, which are being rectified and will be resumed within days. There are serious complaints about two projects and the council has decided to put a hold on their funding until they remedy their shortcomings and its future development can be clearly assessed. In short, project evaluation was conducted rather informally.