Анастасия Литвинова

This going away year was significantly more difficult than the previous one, especially because of the coronavirus, but the university managed to improve all of its key performance indicators. On Friday, December 25, the University’s Academic Council held its final meeting of 2020. The main issue on the agenda was Rector Vladimir Litvinenko’s report on the main results of the year.

One of the focal points of the meeting of the Public Council of the Ministry of Energy was the statement of the rector of St. Petersburg Mining University about the need to strengthen centralized regulation of the fuel and energy complex by the Government of the Russian Federation. A number of media outlets even interpreted his words as a proposal to “create a mega-regulator” in the fuel and energy complex. Forpost reached out to Vladimir Litvinenko for comment.

One of the main tasks for the near future he named increasing the share of the scientific component in the educational process.

The Generation 4.0 team of St. Petersburg Mining University won first place at the developers’ forum “Digital twins - moving companies to new greatness.” It was organized by LUT-University of Lappeenranta (Finland).

Participants of this year’s ”Russian Gas” forum, which was held online, questioned the European Commission’s plans to significantly reduce the consumption of natural gas by the EU energy complex. Brussels considers giving up this resource as a vital necessity in the light of the fight for carbon neutrality.

The hearing of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Court of Arbitration on the case of the fuel spill in Norilsk has been postponed once again, this time, until December 24. It is not yet clear what the verdict of the judges will be and when it will be announced, but according to Rospotrebnadzor, the damage caused to the environment as a result of this accident amounts to 148 billion rubles.

In 2021, St. Petersburg Metro will increase fares above inflation (60 rubles) and will apply for an increase in the amount of subsidy from the budget. The company incurs losses due to the decline in passenger traffic caused by the effects of the pandemic coronavirus in 2020. In comparison with the last year, the subway occupancy decreased by 38%, resulting in a loss of 3.2 billion rubles only for the first 9 months.

Sergei Serdyukov, the former technical director of Nord Stream 2, believes that the main obstacle to Russia’s progressive development is the lack of quality managers, those who can take responsibility for making important strategic decisions and avoid making mistakes when putting them into practice. Is this really the case? How can we make serious top managers of promising young people with leadership skills? Forpost publishes excerpts from Sergey Serdyukov’s commencement lecture “Management as the main problem of the 21st century”, which he delivered in St. Petersburg, at the ”Young Leaders of Science-2020” forum.

They presented their developments to the judgment of experts from major Russian and foreign companies, such as GEOTECH Seismic, SIBUR, PhosAgro, and Schneider Electric.

Under the forge of the Motovilikhinskie Armories lies an iron slab of truly gigantic proportions. A century and a half ago, the 650-ton anvil, as part of the Tsar-Hammer, was recognized as a world treasure at the Vienna Industrial Exhibition. What was the effort behind this casting, unique in the history of metallurgy, and why is the invention resting deep underground today?

Rosneft announced the start of commercial operation of unique hydro treatment catalysts of its own production. They are needed to produce ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuels from crude oil. This seemingly insignificant event puts out of sight a real breakthrough, which may contribute to solving several strategic tasks right away. Among those is reduction of the volume of harmful emissions from vehicle tailpipes and dramatic increase in Russia’s energy security. Forpost found out how realistic this is.

In November 2020, the Siberian Federal University joined the Nedra Consortium of technical universities. In an interview with Forpost.ru, its rector Maxim Rumyantsev spoke about the benefits that the association would bring directly to students, why the national higher school today is so concerned with the issue of competitiveness, and why engineering universities in the regions do not switch to a remote format of education.

The International Competence Center in Mining Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO is holding a large-scale youth forum.

The Murmansk region business faces new and ambitious tasks today: digital development of the Arctic zone. The head of the Mining Department of one of the largest companies in the Arctic region, where underground drilling rigs are already remotely controlled by operators, said when robots will completely replace humans.

Among the most urgent issues are the terms and method of the session, the need to conclude additional agreements to the contracts for educational services, further research and a number of others.

Rector Vladimir Litvinenko at an online meeting on December 2 with heads of departments and deans of the university, due to the deteriorating epidemiological situation in St. Petersburg, demanded from them to strictly comply with the order of the Minister of Education and Science Valery Falkov № 1402 of 11.11.2020 and his order № 1596 of 13.11.2020 and to strengthen measures to counter the pandemic.