MOSCOW, June 24./TASS/. Support for talented youth in Russia must start right during their school years to prevent foreign organizations from luring them abroad, President Vladimir Putin told a session of the Council for Science, Technologies and Education on Wednesday.
"You have been saying how many specialists are leaving [abroad], as we know that the so-called foreign funds are working on schools, network organizations are simply prowling schools of the Russian Federation under the disguise of support for talented youth," he continued.
"In fact they are sucking up like vacuum cleaners, taking school graduates right at schools, putting them on grants and taking away," Putin said with regret.
He said life itself was often determining priorities in the development of science. Back in the Soviet times "priorities were based on a need for the country’s survival, and all effort was hurled into this," he said.
"Today, tasks in the present-day world are more multi-purpose, and it is sometimes hard to determine what could be the main thing, even from the point of view of ensuring the country’s defence capacities and security of the state," Putin noted.
"But in order not to miss anything, we must organize work duly, to see resources of the state used efficiently," the president said.