MOSCOW, October 31 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian innovation center that is the pet project of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday it will contribute over 200 billion rubles ($6.2 billion) to the Russian economy through 2020.
Skolkovo, envisaged as Russia’s answer to Silicon Valley, also said its partner companies will receive 350 patents by 2020 and attract 25 billion rubles of private investment, according to a document circulated at an innovation forum.
Launched by Medvedev in 2009, Skolkovo has been hit by a series of corruption scandals and allegations of financial waste this year. Russian prosecutors said Wednesday that the project had inappropriately spent up to $3.9 billion of government money and implicated top managers in wrongdoing.
Russian officials said in August that Skolkovo would receive 502 billion rubles in funding through 2020, of which 135.6 billion rubles will be provided by the state.
