Наталья Таран

Every time a bank card touches a payment terminal at a gas station, we are not just buying fuel—we are paying for knowledge. Behind this seemingly simple transaction lies an enormous amount of intellectual labor, without which it would be impossible.

Russia has lived in the third millennium for a quarter of a century, but only in recent years has society begun to truly recognize the critical role of science and education. Today, few would dispute their decisive impact on the economy or the direct link between investments in universities, schools, and academic research and technological innovation.

The twenty-first century has brought the world profound contradictions and imbalances of a civilizational scale. One of the fundamental conditions for the existence and development of humanity is the provision of growing demands for energy (fossil fuels) and mineral resources. The essence of these contradictions lies in the uneven distribution of the world’s resource potential. More than 60 percent of any type of mineral resources are concentrated in 8-15 countries. Some possess oil and gas, others have non-ferrous and rare metals, while a third group holds uranium.

How far have we ventured into space? As of 2024, the American space probe ”Voyager 1” is located beyond the Solar System, at a distance of 24 billion kilometers from Earth. However, our progress toward the Earth’s core has been significantly more modest. The deepest drilling depth ever achieved was in Russia, at the Kola Superdeep Borehole. By 1990, it had reached a depth of 12,262 meters. At the time, science and technology were not yet advanced enough to go deeper, and economists did not see any clear prospects for further exploration.

Ректор Санкт-Петербургского горного университета императрицы Екатерины II Владимир Литвиненко провёл серию встреч со студентами и аспирантами вуза

The Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University has started summer internships. The 2024 season is unique in its own way. For the first time, oil and gas students have the opportunity to gain full-fledged production skills in the field of exploration, development and production of hydrocarbons in the Leningrad Region.

The culmination of the visit of the delegation of St. Petersburg Mining University to the Republic of Zimbabwe was a working meeting with Amon Murwira, Head of the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development of this country.

The International Autumn School ”Modern Mining Technologies” has come to an end at the St. Petersburg Mining University, where 70 students and teachers from the Chinese University of Mining Engineering and Technology (CUMT) improved their profile competences. The friendly country is eager to adopt Russia’s rich experience in mining.

Often foreigners who receive higher education in Russia undergo practical training in companies in their native countries, where they intend to work later on. Strange as it may seem, it is much easier for them to organize such a trip than to get a job at a Russian enterprise. However, a student of the St. Petersburg Mining University from Costa Rica gained his first professional experience at the KAMAZ plant in Naberezhnye Chelny.

Globalization allowed the U.S. and the West as a whole to gain significant competitive advantages, albeit at the cost of impoverishing its middle class. But other countries have also benefited, above all China, which has used Western investment, technology and markets for its “peaceful rise.” Moreover, over 40 years it has created a middle class of hundreds of millions of people, has taken the lead in a number of areas of artificial intelligence, and digital ”wallets” have become commonplace for at least 100 million Chinese citizens.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, speaking at the UN climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, announced that he would increase annual investments in climate protection from 5.3 to 6 billion euros by 2025.

Part 1 of this article was published on August 2, 2022.

Under the influence of the ongoing global geopolitical transformations, a powerful catalyst of which was the crisis around Ukraine, the collective West is “raising the stakes” in its desire to achieve “strategic defeat” of Russia. Accordingly, the security situation in Europe is sharply deteriorating, the confrontation zone is expanding and the risks of direct conflict between Russia and NATO are growing. The United States and its satellites continue to expand deliveries of heavy weapons and send volunteers to help the Kiev regime. Deliveries of U.S.

The growth of geopolitical tensions, caused by the unprecedented pressure of sanctions by the global power coalition, coupled with the flight from the country of many adherents of liberalism; have intensified the public debate about the optimal path for Russia’s further socioeconomic development. Should we insist on the preservation of the former export-oriented system, which allows us to ensure a trade surplus, or should we aim for the transition to a mobilization model of the economy, and thus, a sharp increase in state regulation in the cornerstone sectors of the national economy?

On February 3, 2022, the Deputy British Ambassador to the Russian Federation Julia Crouch, paid a working visit to St. Petersburg Mining University.

Exactly 10 years ago, on February 5, 2012, Russian scientists from St. Petersburg Mining University and the AARI were the first in the world to penetrate the subglacial Antarctic reservoir - Lake Vostok - and take unique water samples there, isolated from the outside world for millions of years.