September 09, 2024

Eternal Putin?


Eternal Putin?
Vladimir Putin and scientist Mikhail Kovalchuk. Presidential Press and Information Office, Wikimedia Commons.

In early June, Russian research institutes received a letter from the Russian Ministry of Health that required them to urgently provide developments in the fight against aging. This was reported in an investigation by independent media outlets Meduza and Sistema.

According to journalists, doctors were required to promptly provide “proposals for developments” in the field of preventing and developing cognitive and sensory disorders, methods for correcting the immune system, medical products aimed at reducing the burden of cellular aging, as well as in the field of organ bioprinting.

According to the journalists’ sources in research institutes, they have not yet sent their developments to the Ministry of Health. The publication’s interlocutors noted that they are unlikely to be able to send anything significant — the letter they received had the tone of, “Give me at least something.”

“The biggest boss set the task, and officials rushed to implement it in every possible way,” said one source.

The main lobbyist for the program is believed to be the president of the Kurchatov Institute, Mikhail Kovalchuk, known for his friendship with President Vladimir Putin and commitment to various anti-scientific theories. "This is Kovalchuk, who raves about eternal life and the 'Russian genome,' and that raving has reached the president," said one source.

According to journalists, Kovalchuk is already overseeing a federal program for domestic developments in the field of genetics. Putin's eldest daughter, endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova, is participating in it.

As noted by the investigation, back in early 2024, Putin announced that Russia needed a new national project aimed at "preserving the health" of citizens. One interviewee at a capital hospital ironically calls the initiative "the whims of an aging Politburo."

It is not yet known whether the new letter is connected with the national program. At the same time, the letter from the Ministry of Health and articles dedicated to the national project mention a direction that is only indirectly related to life extension as a technology “aimed at active longevity.” This includes three-dimensional printing using living cells, which allows the creation of human organs (bioprinting). The state corporation Rosatom, associated with Kovalchuk, is responsible for its development.

You Might Also Like

Russian Anxiety on the Rise
  • August 26, 2024

Russian Anxiety on the Rise

Russian anxieties about the war are increasing in response to Ukraine's offensive into the Kursk region. 
So Long, American Tech
  • August 21, 2024

So Long, American Tech

US-based software companies will soon not be accessible in Russia at all. 
Made in Russia?
  • August 19, 2024

Made in Russia?

According to journalists, Russia has failed in its efforts at import substitution.
What's Your Score?
  • July 15, 2024

What's Your Score?

A Moscow university hopes to create a social score system like China's. 
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955