Russia needs `social revolution` to modernize – official
MOSCOW – Russia will need a dramatic social upturn if it is to modernize its energy-export dependent economy, Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach said on Tuesday, Ria Novosti reported.
"An economy cannot be innovative if the intellectual class is poor by definition," Klepach said during an economic conference in Moscow.
"When we talk of innovations, it's not about how much is spent on Research & Development and how active our businesses are in introducing it," he went on. "It's about a certain revolution in society."
"Modernization" - building innovation parks and diversifying away from the country's reliance upon oil and gas exports - has become the byword of Dmitry Medvedev's presidency, ideas markedly at odds with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's populist hardman image.
In a bold address to parliament last week, Putin warned against "unjustified liberalism" and "social demagogy," fueling speculation of a growing rift within Russia's ruling tandem ahead of the 2012 presidential election.
Last month, Medvedev ordered government ministers, most of them Putin's allies, to give up their seats on the boards of state firms.
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