Skolkovo at the centre of corruption controversy

Skolkovo and Rusnano, two major Russian innovation initiatives, are at the centre of a political power struggle that threatens their ability to attract international investment, Bloomberg reports.

Both have become part of an effort by Russian president Vladimir Putin to demonstrate that he is cracking down on corruption and the mismanagement of public money, the article says.

Skolkovo, a project that aims to create an innovation hub outside Moscow, linking researchers to multinational companies, has been implicated in financial mismanagement by a government investigation committee. The charges led to the resignation of the project’s curator Vladislav Surkov, after which Putin appointed one of his own advisers to manage the project, the article says.