Instead of admitting the defeat, Russian universities continue reporting their “successes.” The inability to admit the defeat is overshadowed by a much more serious problem, the inability to create true modern-day research universities. When world university rankings will become more sophisticated and separate social science publications from math and natural sciences publications, Russian universities may lose even more spots in the rankings. The chosen Russian universities that absorbed billions of U.S. dollars from the federal budget, failed to achieve world-class status. This implies that the Russian government defrauds students and their parents. Even the best and brightest cannot attend world-class universities, simply because there are none in Russia. They now form generation 0-100, deprived of the best educational experiences. Putin’s 5-100 initiative failed badly, transformed into 0-100. Dial 0-100 on your phone, and you will get to Putin, that is.

Ararat L Osipian is a Fellow of the Institute of International Education, and Fellow of the New University in Exile Consortium, USA, and holds a PhD in Education and Human Development from Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University, where he came as a fellow of the U.S. Department of State.

Image: Reuters.