MOSCOW, June 27 The head of the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation, Maksut Shadayev, spoke about the problem of a shortage of highly qualified engineers in the country who could participate in the development of new promising technologies.
“We have a problem with a shortage of highly qualified engineering personnel to advance such complex topics as artificial intelligence. It is not to implement these solutions, but to participate in the development of new promising technologies… If we have more or less development, we have personnel, then in the “heavy” ones segments — robotics, industrial automation, complex artificial intelligence, heavy iron — we have a huge deficit here,” Shadayev said during a speech at the GigaConf 2024 IT conference. 
The minister noted that this is a serious challenge, despite the fact that Russian universities provide a good base for specialists.
«We are now discussing what training programs should be in place so that we end up with such super-qualified, elite elites who will continue to move technology forward. Not just to ensure application.., but so that we have new competitive developments comparable to international leading projects,” added Shadayev.
In early June, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Maxim Oreshkin said that Russia had passed the peak of encouraging young people to go into the IT field, and fundamental engineering specialties, on the contrary, were on the rise and would receive support.