On New Year’s Eve, Vladimir Putin’s daughter Katerina Tikhonova’s foundation Innopraktika made a number of statements about its readiness to act as an integrator and “one-stop shop” for high-tech companies, as well as to gather development institutions into “one perimeter”. The public speaker to promote these initiatives was Natalia Popova, First Deputy CEO of Innopraktika and public ombudsman for the protection of high-tech companies’ rights. Popova is also known as a university friend of Katerina Tikhonova and as the wife of Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. In addition, Popova is a TV presenter (the programmes “House of Scientists ” on the Kultura channel and “New People ” on the Nauka channel) and, in the recent past, a model who shot under the name Natalia Sveshnikova for Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and Marie Claire magazines. Popova has been lobbying for Innopraktika’s interests in Africa and the BRICS countries for the past few years and probably wants to continue the reform of development institutions, which started in 2020 but was interrupted.
Congress ideas – into life
Tikhonova and Popova made their first statements about the need to change the structure of the high-tech industry on 10 December at their traditional 11th Congress “Innovation Practice: Science plus Business”. As in previous years, the forum was attended by many federal officials and heads of large state business. This time the theme of the year was formulated more ambitiously than ever: “Aggregate Sovereignty 3.0”. To emphasise the scale of the idea even more, the organisers decided to switch from “import substitution” to “import substitution” and to ” technological leadership”. Curiously, last year’s congress theme was also “Aggregate Sovereignty”, but without the ordinal version, and the 2.0 stage was probably decided to skip without stopping.
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Katerina Tikhonova
In December 2023, Katerina Tikhonova told the country’s largest businessmen that the topics of Innopraktika congresses “are always coordinated with the security strategy of the Russian Federation,” and talked about the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Moscow State University, which she also headed and which has its own powerful supercomputer ( T-invariant investigated thehistory of its appearance in detail ). Tikhonova did not honour bankers, heads of state corporations, officials and ministers with her personal presence, but spoke to them from the big screen. Her representative was her permanent deputy, friend and fellow student Natalia Popova. And while in 2023 the hottest topic was artificial intelligence, in 2024 more attention was paid to the topic of agro- and biotech: for example, Maxim Patrushev, a representative of the Kurchatov Institute, told how, thanks to the help of Innopraktika, work on the Genetic Sovereignty programme was underway , and students were live-streaming the Battle of Wits: Territory of Agro.
However, in order not to catch up but to overtake, something more revolutionary is needed. At the plenary session, it was decided to create a “single integrator” that would unite “all development institutions” and “industrial and sectoral businesses” to “create new technologies: from fundamental and applied research to implementation and mass production”.
“There is a need for an “end-to-end” co-operative model of work of development institutions to support the creation of new technologies: from fundamental and applied research to implementation and mass production. It is important for this mechanism to be ‘seamless’, and for this purpose it is necessary, among other things, to create an [independent] integrator that accompanies the project at all stages of implementation: from the moment of approval of the customer’s needs to serial delivery,” Tikhonova said. By the way, the metaphor of “seamlessness” to describe the correct principles of work of development institutions was constantly used by Andrei Belousov when he was the first deputy prime minister. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, governor of the Samara Region and head of the State Council of the Russian Federation’s Industry Commission, explained the idea of the reform in simple language and in his own way.
“We must keep all development institutions “in one perimeter”. A single integrator is really needed for industrial, sectoral business. The ideal model is when an entrepreneur comes to the digital space and a string of all the tools provided by development institutions is lined up in front of him, and he doesn’t have to do anything at all. Just press buttons and sign a digital signature. This is not the case now,” the official said.
Natalia Popova’s Instagram, January 2025
Then the congress proposals were actively developed in interviews with the media and TV channels by Natalia Popova. on 26 December 2024, she stated in an interview that “Innopraktika is ready to act as an “integrator and “single window” on the issues of attracting market investments in the capital of fast-growing technology companies.” “This can be realised both through our own instruments (the Technology Investment Fund) and with the resources of our partners and trustees. At the same time, it is important that the companies themselves – national champions – grow a kind of ‘innovation belt’ of small technology companies with innovative solutions and products,” Popova explained.
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The following partners and trustees are listed onthe Innopraktika website : PJSC Rosneft Oil Company, Rosatom, SIBUR Holding, Rostec, Transneft, NOVATEK, Gazprom, Gazprombank, Gazprom Neft, Zarubezhneft, VTB Bank (PJSC), JSC Rosselkhozbank, PJSC Promsvyazbank (PSB), Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), JSC URALCHEM, PJSC Rostelecom, JSC Russian Railways, PJSC Inter RAO, VEB.RF, PJSC PhosAgro, etc. Analysis of social networks and press releases of Innopraktika shows that the main sponsor of the organisation’s initiatives is Rosneft Oil Company, whose Chairman of the Management Board is Igor Sechin.
Natalia Popova’s Instagram, January 2025
What Tikhonova and Popova can achieve “depends on the specific performers and their ideas of beauty,” a former top manager who previously worked at several development institutes and high-tech state corporations explains to T-invariant. “The call to ‘keep everything in one perimeter’ looks frightening, as something like the state corporation Rosrazvitie, with all that entails, immediately begins to loom on the horizon.” However, when Fedorishchev describes his ideal model (“the entrepreneur comes to the digital space…only to press buttons and put a digital signature”), it is, in fact, such Gosudservices for the entrepreneur. A portal-catalogue of services aimed at the entrepreneur-innovator, supported by a means of verifying the type of digital signature,” says the T-invariant’s interlocutor.
According to the T-invariant expert, in the corporatist statecurrently being built in Russia, there is no need for complex institutions of horizontal interaction. “What will be the result? A universal portal of access to different development institutions? Or a mandatory national ecosystem like an ‘app shop’ and connecting everyone to this ecosystem with some unified requirements that will kill diversity and lead to the same Rosrazvitie state corporation, only virtual? Big question!”, – the expert believes. Whether exactly Innopraktika will be able to become responsible for the “unified perimeter” of all high-tech industries depends on how and where the money will come from, says the T-invariant expert. “If bankers and state businessmen will be summoned to the AP and explicitly told to pass 0.05% of turnover through this new future structure, then the head will need a more significant person than these ladies, and if the issue of money will be put on the brakes and make it voluntary, you can put the chief at least Popova, at least Shchedrovitsky Jr, at least Adam Kadyrov. It will no longer matter,” – said the interlocutor T-invariant.
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Five clusters for everything
Interestingly, the reform of development institutions (DIs) in the Russian Federation already took place in 2020. Then Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin stated that the goal of the reform was to get five major development centres, and thus twenty organisations turned out of 40.
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What development institutions have turned out after the reform in 2020-2021
As a result of the 2020 reform, the VEB.RF Group was named the main centre for managing development institutions and the following institutions were also included in it:
– JSC Rusnano;
– Rusnano Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programmes;
– Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology (“Foundation for Assistance to Innovations”, aka “Bortnik Fund”);
– SME Corporation JSC;
– Skolkovo Foundation (manages the innovation centre and links Skoltech and the Skolkovo School of Management into one ecosystem);
– Industrial Development Fund;
– Russian Export Centre.Some institutions have been enlarged:
– russian Venture Company (RVC) was incorporated into the Russian Direct Investment Fund, but without the project office of the National Technology Initiative (NTI), which had been part of RVC since 2015;
– The Russian Foundation for Basic Research merged into the Russian Science FoundationThe reform did not affect 12 institutes that were recognised as strategically important. Among the high-tech ones, these are, for example, state corporations Rosatom, Roscosmos and Rostec.
The National Technology Initiative (NTI) and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) were not reformed and retained their autonomy.
The reform of development institutions stretched over 2020-2021 and was probably not finalised until the end. Some of the information about the new configuration has not been updated on the websites of some institutions or the new status is not presented at all.
A similar attempt to create five clusters, but only in the field of science and education, was made at the same time in 2020 by Mikhail Kovalchuk, President of SIC Kurchatov Institute Mikhail Kovalchuk. He appealed to Mishustin with a proposal to “reformat the scientific potential of the Russian Federation by uniting scientific and scientific-educational organisations into five clusters (groups)”, taking into account “the experience of the organisation of the scientific and technological sphere in Germany”. Kovalchuk referred to the German Helmholtz Society, Max Planck Society, Fraunhofer Society, suggesting that all universities and research institutes should be united into a “Kurchatov association”, “Korolev association”, “Lomonosov association”, etc., depending on the specifics of the organisations. Without this, according to Kovalchuk, “it is impossible to ensure the country’s ability to adequately respond to major challenges and the formation of an effective modern system of management of the research and development sphere.
At the time, Minister of Higher Education and Science Falkov and then RAS President Sergeyev gave a negative response to the idea, and members of the informal club of academics “1 July” wrote a public letterto Mishustin assessing the initiative.
“We are concerned and saddened by your readiness to seriously discuss the initiatives of RAS Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences M.V.Kovalchuk on the radical transformation of the scientific sphere of Russia. They show that the reformist itch of academic losers, which led to the disaster in this field and to the loss of Russia’s leading positions in world science, has not gone anywhere and continues to enjoy the support of the top officials,” the open letter said.
Since then, Mikhail Kovalchuk has not been heard of such large-scale initiatives to redistribute the “perimeter” of the sphere of education, science and technology. However, he continued to “consolidate assets” around himself and the Kurchatov Institute more precisely. Since 2007, Kovalchuk has assembled and continues to attach a number of institutes and scientific facilities to Kurchatov. All of this is necessary in order to get the so-called “synergy” effect. Therefore, in 2014 in the Kremlin, when asked by Vladimir Putin whether there was any synergy from the fact that the Kurchatov Institute was given several scientific organisations at once, Mikhail Kovalchuk confidently confirmed: “Full, there is synergy”. Since then, seven more institutes and a number of scientific courts have joined the Kurchatov Centre .
Today, the Kurchatov Institute and Innopraktika are working together on the Interuniversity Quantum Network, the National Database of Genetic Information, and a number of genomic and biotech projects. Kovalchuk’s figure may also be behind the new idea of gathering all development institutions “into one perimeter,” says a T-invariant interlocutor who used to work in the management of one of the state corporations. But there are no participants or mechanisms in the political system of modern Russia that could stop the passion for unification of a specialist in X-ray structure analysis who has held more than fifteen different positions, including the presidency of the Polytechnic Museum.
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The problem of technological and innovation lag has been discussed in Russia for many years. Almost always original point solutions are envisaged, rather than institutional changes.In 2014,Leo Rafael Rife , Rector of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, attended another meeting of officials and state bankers with scientists and innovators. When asked what breakthrough technologies should be bet on (without changing the sociopolitical system of the country), he replied: “You want to get milk without a cow” (this episode is recounted and commented onin detail in this video by Loren Graham, a professor at MIT, who was present at that meeting). The meeting in question took place at the very time when Katerina Tikhonova decided to quit sports and work on improving the Russian innovation system. Although the idea that it is possible to overtake the West in the field of technology without catching up had appeared to the Russian leadership much earlier, back in the days of the nanotechnology initiative, and it belonged to the same Mikhail Kovalchuk.
Another ex-head of the development institute told T-invariant on condition of anonymity that Innopraktika’s ambitions are not yet visible on the market. “In the IT and high-tech sector, Innopraktika is not mentioned – and neither are its female executives. However, we see that many players are now trying to shake up the situation when [Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media] Maksut Shadaev’s position is very unstable and a redistribution of influence is clearly coming.” This is primarily about the public outcry over the detention of Deputy Communications Minister Maksim Parshin. It is believed that it is a reputational blow to Shadaev himself. “Perhaps Innopraktika’s management has some plans in connection with this,” suggests the T-invariant’s interlocutor.
Kirill Dmitriev and Natalia Popova
From the catwalk to Africa: what we know about Natalia Popova
The media call Natalia Popova the wife of Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. A few years ago, the Financial Times linked Dmitriev’s influence in pro-government circles to his wife’s connections (he was a member of the board of directors of Sibur, a company co-owned by Tikhonova’s ex-husband Kirill Shamalov).
Popova is a university friend of Katerina Tikhonova. She has been her deputy at Innopraktika for many years. She has also served on the boards of several companies with state contracts and multi-billion dollar turnovers. At the same time, her friends earn money from government contracts and cooperation with RDIF, according to an investigation by the Centre Dossier. At least in 2021, she had a media business and her own popular science show on TV and YouTube.
On international modelling websites one can find a profile with fashion shoots for Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, Bazaar and other leading glossy magazines. On the website of the Moscow centre for figure correction “Ruchnaya Plastika” on Rublyovsky Highway, Natalia Popova is still listed as a star client, but under the name of Natasha Sveshnikova, a “world-class top model”. In some publications in glossy media, Natalia Sveshnikova is listed as 10 years younger.
Popova developed her two biographies in parallel for at least ten years, until the pandemic, while Katerina Tikhonova ended her sporting career in acrobatic rock ‘n’ roll (her record includes participation in European and world championships) around 2012-2013, when she became head of the Innopraktika Foundation. Popova began to actively change her public image only after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She began to position herself much more frequently as deputy CEO of Innopraktika, and the organisation under her operational public leadership began to show itself much more actively, visibly and extensively.
Innopractice event in Senegal
For example, the latest new direction of Innopraktika was to build an international presence in Africa and BRICS countries. on 5 November 2024, Popova opened the first Innopraktika lecture hall in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. She also signed agreements to open two lecture halls: at the University of Mumbai in India and at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The launch should take place in early 2025. Popova also launched the Innopraktiki art school and organised art events in Senegal and in Russian-occupied Luhansk.
Natalia Popova in Senegal
At the same time, Popova has not abandoned her career as a TV presenter, for example, she hosts the TV show “Challenge” together with Dmitry Guberniev. Popova is actively transforming the show into a youth social movement and at the last Innopraktika congress she reported on its quantitative indicators to partners and trustees. Alexander Zharov, now CEO of Gazprom-Media and formerly the long-time head of Roskomnadzor, praised the success of the Challenge show at the Congress. He said that it is “an absolutely original format where science leaders compete with stars of the stage” and it is of “great importance for the socio-cultural and mental attitudes of Russian society”. In 2024, the show, in the spirit of the times , declared the 3rd season “Chinese” and called for actors from the PRC.
The example of the management of Innopraktika shows how the new generation of innovation managers creatively embodies the idea of “synergy of everything with everything” inherited from the old elite, which invariably finds understanding in the head of the country. Especially since he, unlike the elites, does not change.
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Text: T-invariant Editorial Board
Editors 15.01.2025