It is curious that it is Deputy Prime Minister Shuvalov who is pushing “import substitution” in the government, including in its most extreme forms. *Vedomosti* reports on his directive under which state-owned companies will be required to give priority to buying Russian software.
I served on the board of a company that was forced to comply with idiotic directives like these. For example, Aeroflot formally complied with a similarly absurd requirement on “annual mandatory innovation.” A fat report full of far-fetched nonsense had to be written up for the government so it could be folded into a consolidated report containing the same kind of nonsense from every company with state ownership.
This nationwide report of nonsense was handed to Medvedev, and he was delighted that innovation had supposedly grown by 3.4% in such-and-such quarter.
The company is forced to pull highly paid employees away from real work for this rubbish. In effect, that means taking losses.
And when it comes to “software import substitution,” this will mean major losses and corruption. Those who can develop software for themselves will commission it and build it—that is in their interest. If they can order it in Russia, they will. But now everyone will start being forced to buy all sorts of software at triple the price from various state unitary enterprises with names like “Computer-Automation-Space-Matryoshka.”
We have written many times that government procurement of software and various “information systems” is possibly the most corrupt part of state contracting. It is impossible to monitor the quality of these systems. There is simply no way to tell whether a contractor who received a billion rubles actually delivered anything, or just handed half of that billion to an official and delivered nothing at all. The story of the information system at Far Eastern Federal University is a typical example.
Anyway, back to Shuvalov—I got sidetracked. It is amusing that he is the one promoting “import substitution.” After all, we taught you how to track his plane. You can see for yourself: since the publication, the deputy prime minister’s splendid Bombardier, worth $52 million, flew to Sardinia, stayed there for a while, and is now in the Maldives.
From there, directives on rapid import substitution must be especially easy to write.