MOSCOW, October 1 (Itar-Tass) — Facebook’s research and development centre may appear in Russia. RF Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov said in his Twitter blog that this issue was raised on Monday at Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s meeting with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
According to Zuckerberg, he arrived in Moscow also to communicate with Russian developers of applications for social networks. “We need a variety of social applications and products that are produced by Russian companies,” he said. Meanwhile, on the eve of Zuckerberg’s visit some experts raised concerns that the founder of the world’s largest social network has arrived “to entice away Russian experts.” “@MedvedevRussia agreed with Zuckerberg that it would be more profitable to open a Facebook research and development centre in Russia,” Nikiforov wrote in his microblog after the meeting.
“Actually, I am surprised at all this discussion about someone’s enticing away some employees from somebody. We have no restrictions on travel,” the minister added. “The question is where the best conditions for the realisation of the potential of an expert are created. I know many examples of effective “enticing” (specialists) from the United States to Russia.” The minister said that it is necessary to create the conditions in Russia “in which people would sincerely want to live and work in our country, in our companies.” Brain drain from Russia, according to him, is related to the instability and insecurity. “We need justice and equality regardless of the social status,” he said. Nikiforov said that Russia already has such successful IT-companies as Yandex, Mail.ru, Parallels.
Zuckerberg posted a photo with Medvedev on his Facebook page leaving a comment: “Good conversation with Prime Minister Medvedev.”
Facebook may be present in Russia not only as a social network but also as a company that uses up-to-date information technologies.
This possibility was discussed by Dmitry Medvedev and Mark Zuckerberg.
They discussed Facebook’s possible presence in Russia not only as a social network but as a company that uses the most advanced products, the prime minister’s spokesperson Natalia Timakova said.
She said it was a good discussion, during which Medvedev and Zuckerberg also talked about the development of IT business in Russia, Skolkovo as a place for start-ups of mutual interest, as well as the development and role of social networks in the world.
“Dmitry Anatolyevich asked, jokingly, if he understood it correctly that [U.S. President Barack] Obama will win because he has many more followers than [Republican presidential candidate Mitt] Romney [Obama has 28 million, and Romney 9-10 million],” Timakova said. “Zuckerberg replied that when he had thought it up for chatting with his University friends, he could not even imagine that it would become a factor of politics.”