No fools

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev does not rule out that in the future Russians will switch from cars to helicopters. According to RIA Novosti, he said this during a conversation with students of the "creative class" of MISiS, where the "helicopter project" was considered. One of the leaders of the Center for Industrial Design and Innovation, designer Vladimir Pirozhkov, held a brainstorm among students, one of the ideas of which was the development of helicopter transport instead of building an extensive road network in Russia. "Those who can fly don't need roads, it's a dream, of course, but not quite a crazy one," Pirozhkov said. "The idea is very bright, because Russia may be the most helicopter country in the world," Medvedev said, commenting on the project.

"If I were a representative of our bureaucracy, I would give you a dozen reasons why it is impossible to do this: there is no demand, it is not clear who will issue, who will lend, there are no rules, because it is forbidden to fly everywhere in our helicopters, only I can fly over Moscow," Medvedev said. He also doubted the low price of equipment - 70-100 thousand euros per helicopter and the availability of demand. However, the students said that the price is quite real, and those who bought large jeeps will buy helicopters. "It's like a mobile phone replaced a landline one," Pirozhkov said.

In the end, the president agreed with the designer. "To launch this project, of course, you need to try. But this does not mean that you do not need to dream, especially since, according to a well-known saying, the number of good roads in our country is not growing so quickly, and the number of famous people is not decreasing so quickly," - the president said.

In May 2009, Dmitry Medvedev tried himself as a Mi-8 helicopter "pilot" and a tanker "captain". At the Transas plant in St. Petersburg, which produces marine and aviation equipment, as well as flight simulators, Medvedev was shown the only high-class simulator in Russia for professional pilots.

It simulates a flight on the most popular Mi-8 helicopter in Russia. The head of the company's training department, Yevgeny Abakumov, together with Medvedev, sat at the helm of the Mi-8 and, in adverse conditions, "landed the helicopter" at the Adler airport. "This is the most difficult program: in the main rotor autorotation mode with two engines turned off, we managed to land safely," the pilot said after the "flight" with the president.

In March 2009, Medvedev flew a Su-34 bomber. Before taking off from the Kubinka airfield near Moscow, the head of state passed a pre-flight briefing and a medical examination.

The flight lasted about half an hour.

On June 30, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that Russia was not going to "steal away the technology of other countries, they need not be afraid." “As for the transfer of so-called technologies, this is a strange wording. No one in the world in which we live just gives anything, except for humanitarian aid. Everything is sold,” Putin said. "Modern technologies are goods that our partners want to sell, and we are ready to buy for good money. If you don't want to sell, don't," Putin added.

According to a survey conducted by the research group "Zircon" together with OMI Russia, citizens understand the modernization of Russia not so much technological innovations as political changes. The Russians called the fight against corruption, the reduction of the apparatus of state officials and the creation of conditions for fair competition as fundamental signs of modernization. This trend was most clearly manifested in the results of the so-called "vanguard group", which includes qualified specialists or managers living in large cities with high Internet activity and material wealth. This approach differs from the position of the President's Commission on Modernization, whose main priorities are technological innovation.

As other political criteria for modernization, the Russians noted the active participation of citizens in local self-government, a return to direct elections of governors, the independence of the courts, guarantees of freedom of rallies and ensuring equal access to the media. On all these points, the results of the advanced group exceed the results of the total number of respondents.