MOSCOW, November 7. /TASS/. Russia allocates 33 times less money to science from the federal budget than the US now, Chairman of the State Duma’s Committee for Education and Science said on Thursday at the committee’s session dedicated to the draft budget for 2020.

"We lagged 28 times behind the US in the amount of state financing of science two years ago, and today we are lagging 33 times behind. We were 18 times behind China and are now 22 times behind, we lagged behind Germany five times and now lag eight times behind. Russia falls four times behind South Korea in the total volume of state financing," the committee’s press service quoted the lawmaker as saying.

The committee head stressed that Russian science is the only one in the world in which the number of researchers has been decreasing for more than twenty years.

The latter recalled that according to the Russian president’s order as of 2012, expenses for research and innovations should make up 1.77% of the gross domestic product. "In fact, they make up 1.11% of the gross domestic product now," he stated, highlighting that a reduction in budget allocations for science results in "falling behind in the parameters… that determine the future of the country."