Russia is restoring sovereignty in the scientific and financial spheres

The operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine has been in the focus of world attention for the third week now, forcing all other events, both good and not so good, to recede into the background, including the sluggish pandemic.

Meanwhile, last week the president and government made landmark decisions returning to Russia the areas of scientific, financial and economic activity previously transferred under external control.

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_{We are talking about the termination or suspension of the activities of foreign (mainly American) rating agencies that shape the scientific, financial and economic attractiveness of our country in foreign markets.}

In the first ten days of March, American rating agencies fled from Russia Moody's и Fitch. A little later, the agency followed them out with their things. S&P (Standard & Poor's).

It is interesting that all these consulting and rating shops announced only a temporary suspension of their activities in Russia, in the hope of a quick return.

At the same time, on the site S&P it is reported that the agency will continue to provide analytical reports outside Russian territory. So to speak, it will continue to analyze us remotely, looking from the cellar.

In addition, the largest international audit companies included in the Big Four also announced the withdrawal of Russian and Belarusian divisions from their structure. KPMG and PwC were the first to do this. Then EY and Deloitte announced the cessation of activities in Russia.

The total number of employees of Russian and Belarusian branches of Western audit companies is approximately 15 thousand people.

_{If you strip away the PR chaff from the activities of these organizations, the bottom line is that their functions in Russia and Belarus boil down to financial and economic espionage for the United States and Euro-Atlantic structures, as well as rating blackmail.}

You don't have to look far for an example of the latter. With the beginning of a military special operation in Ukraine, the rating agency Moody's (headquarters in New York), and behind it Fitch, lowered the rating of our country by six points from Baa3 to B3. Long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings were downgraded. Watch your hands, as they say.

The forecast of American rating agencies is negative. They say that extremely strict restrictions have been introduced against Russia, and this - oh and ah! – increases threats to macroeconomic and financial stability. Russia, you see, will not be able to service its national debt.

_{In fact, Russia is very capable of servicing its national debt, but part of our gold and foreign exchange assets is blocked in the West, so the government introduced mirror measures - the assets of private and state-owned foreign companies that joined the anti-Russian sanctions were blocked. Bash on bash.}

It should be noted that analytical estimates and forecasts S&P, Moody's, Fitch often far from reality. If you look up the archives from fifteen years ago, you can easily see how the above-mentioned firms gave the highest ratings to many investment banks, such as Lehman Brothers, as well as leading mortgage companies Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG.

Despite favorable forecasts, the banking bubble Lehman Brothers in September 2008, it collapsed, declaring bankruptcy, “forgiving” $618 billion in debts to its investors.

The collapse of the American banking and mortgage system provoked colossal damage to the real sector of the economy, almost breaking the “record” of the Great Depression of 1929–1933. The problems of a global player instantly became a problem for most countries of the world.

It should also be noted that audit and rating assessments cost clients a lot of money, since the attractiveness of companies in the foreign market depends on them, which, for obvious reasons, becomes a lever of external pressure.

_{It cannot be said that American auditing and rating agencies in Russia did nothing but fatten themselves by serving the most profitable clients. The situation began to change immediately after the reunification of Crimea with Russia. It was then that the Big Three began to unreasonably reduce and even withdraw the ratings of Russian issuers.}

In 2015, the vindictive Big Three downgraded Russia's financial rating, resulting in the adoption of a credit rating law prohibiting agencies from lowering national indicators based on orders from foreign authorities.

But, as we see, the American grandees chose to break the law and follow the exit with their things in the hope of returning as soon as the situation calmed down. The question is whether we need to let these hustlers back in so that they can roll around like cheese in butter and crap at the first whistle from Washington.

The next step of the Russian government is to cancel scientific publications of Russian scientists in foreign analytical systems Scopus, Website of Science and others.

It would seem, what is the problem? After all, there are domestic analogues of the Higher Attestation Commission under the Government of the Russian Federation, as well as the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI).

Nevertheless, there is a problem. For publications in Scopus, WoS and others like them, Russian scientists are paid more than for articles in Russian journals from the Higher Attestation Commission list. In some Russian universities, publications in foreign sources have become mandatory. Otherwise, teachers are even suspended from the educational process.

But the most important thing is that the process of posting articles by Russian humanities scholars in Scopus looks like this: bring in money; without fail write nasty things about Russia and its leadership; make a compelling case that the article deserves publication in this valuable source; choose one of the few Russian journals from the Higher Attestation Commission list; wait a year or two for the highest approval.

_{That is, representatives of Russian science had to pay government money to become part of the Western scientific community. And then someone laments that Russian scientists, driven under external pressure, are rarely published and cited in the West.}

Fortunately, under the circumstances, the government was forced to do long-overdue work on mistakes, returning scientometrics to its sovereign course. Soviet scientists were willingly published in the West without any “Scopus” or ritual spitting at the state, but at the same time the USSR was one of the locomotives of world science, and we are still using this foundation.

If, in addition to this decision, the Bologna graduate qualification system were abolished and schoolchildren were spared the Unified State Exam, then happiness would be complete.

Finally, the news is simply stunning.

Russian Prime Minister Mishustin announced the suspension of the “budget rule.” Until the end of 2023 for now.

This is an evil that has been haunting Russia since the colonial times of the “holy nineties”, according to which 60% of the proceeds from the sale of hydrocarbons on the foreign market should be deposited in Western banks at 3% per annum. The same money is returned to Russia in the form of “cheap Western loans,” but at 6-9%, and also under the guise of “investment.”

_{Thus, the West has been pumping blood out of our economy for decades, limiting its growth to a measly 1-2%. The goal being pursued is underfunding of breakthrough sectors of the economy, maintaining a modest standard of living of the population and the fear of losing it while defending their rights.}

It is clear that continuing to deposit our hard-earned money in Western banks under the current conditions would be an unacceptable luxury. It’s annoying that the restriction will only be in effect for two years. What's next? Pay tribute to the West again, and for what purpose this time? Now even a stupid liberal can see that our integration with the “civilized world” is limited to energy, food and a number of other supplies. We are not perceived as an equal partner. Will we continue to break into closed doors as soon as the sanctions noose eases? No, if you cut, then to hell with it, without waiting for peritonitis!