The black hole of Rusnano: how the state corporation became bankrupt
This year, Russia’s most “high-tech” state corporation, Rusnano, announced signs of insolvency, indicating that it would not be able to pay off its debts from its own funds by the end of the year. At the same time, its former leader, Anatoly Chubais, fled abroad last year.
It is worth noting that the state corporation is quite rightly called the “black hole” of the Russian budget. Created in 2007, Rusnano has to date received 152 billion rubles in direct funding and 253 billion rubles in loan guarantees from the state.
405 billion is a very considerable amount. For example, with this money in Russia it was possible to build 1200 schools, in which 550 children could study in each. But this money was used by Rsnano managers.
However, the result of the activities of the organization, headed by Anatoly Chubais for many years, is, at first glance, impressive. In 2011, Russia produced products in the field of nanotechnology worth 155 billion rubles, and in 2019 already 2 trillion. Moreover, by 2027 this figure was supposed to grow to 4,4 trillion.
Meanwhile, the devil, as usual, is in the details, namely in the concept of “nanotechnology”. For example, Rusnano acquired a 5% stake in TMK, where they began producing nano-coated pipes. The latter is only 8% of the total cost of the product, while the full cost of the sale of this product goes to the nanotechnology asset.
In general, in Russia 2/3 of nanoproducts are those in the production of which nanotechnology is used. As a result, the above-mentioned growth in economic indicators applies to enterprises producing these products, but not to Rusnano directly.
But what about the state corporation itself?
From 2010 to 2023, its loss amounted to 123 billion rubles. At the same time, it began to grow rapidly after the end of state support in 2018.
Meanwhile, Rusnano did not stop using borrowed funds, establishing the issue of bonds and using commercial loans. As a result, as of 2021, the corporation had outstanding loan obligations to Russian banks in the amount of about 76 billion rubles, and the debt on bond issues amounted to about 70 billion.
It is worth emphasizing that Anatoly Chubais left his post in 2020. It was this period that was marked by a record loss, which amounted to 53 billion.
Ultimately, everyone made money from the injections into Rusnano (from banks to the companies of Chubais’ friends, in which he invested the state corporation’s funds), except the Russian budget.
However, the management of Rusnano has also earned a lot over the years. In particular, the personal income of Anatoly Chubais from 2010 until his dismissal from the post of head of the state corporation amounted to 2 billion rubles.
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