Americans could have been thwarted by a unique project
The US Department of Commerce's decision to impose export sanctions on MIPT, the first Russian university to be subject to such a restriction, confused everyone. And in Phystech itself and outside the walls of the technical university. Although there may be something completely different behind such a decision. For example, the war for global fuel markets.
Photo: Lesless ru.wikipedia .org.
MIPT has been hit by sanctions along with 26 companies in Japan, China, Pakistan and Singapore. According to the Americans, all those fined engage in “activities that are contrary to the interests of national security or US foreign policy.” Eight Chinese companies are developing quantum computer technologies that are said to be used in antistealth programs and to help hackers.
Specifically, MIPT got into martyrology due to the “development of military products for military purposes.” The United States has decided to “stop the leakage of American technology” for the military progress of the PRC and Russia and activities related to Pakistan's nuclear program, “said US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
“We are surprised by the US authorities' decision to include MIPT in the list of organizations and individuals subject to export sanctions,” said Dmitry Livanov, rector of Moscow University of Physics and Technology. – The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology is a world leader in the physical sciences, mathematics and computer science, and many commercial and government companies in Russia and around the world are customers of our basic research and applied development.
We strongly hope that the restrictions imposed on MIPT will not affect close academic collaboration with US universities and research institutes, and MIPT will be able to continue to build fruitful collaborations with the world's leading scientists and research centers to benefit from the development of global science.
As explained in the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Industry and Security, licenses for business activities with “military end users” will be issued subject to denial. This means that the company will first have to prove the need to cooperate with MIPT and then obtain permission from the office. And while we talk about export supplies, these sanctions can affect the university's scientific and educational work or its international programs.
Phystech is historically one of the leading research centers in our country, at various times Nobel Prize winners Pyotr Kapica, Lev Landau and Nikolai Semenov worked here. His graduates were also Andrey Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who received the Nobel Prize for the invention of graphene.
“International trade should contribute to peace, prosperity and well-paid jobs, not security risks,” said Gina Raimondo, head of the US Department of Commerce. “Today's decision by the Ministry of Commerce should prevent the transfer of American technology to China and Russia and support Pakistan's dangerous nuclear program.”
It is not known how for Pakistan, but for Phystech as a science center, such a decision will complicate the purchase of American equipment and components, experts say. International interactions will also be complicated, because financial flows, one way or another, will not be bypassed even by the United States. Not only corporations but also individuals are careful when dealing with organizations “under US sanctions.” In general, peace is war, ignorance is power, so it turns out …
As MIPT is Russia's first educational university with this type of “black mark”, doubts are creeping into the authenticity of the reasons for the wrath of the god of American business. This is not related, for example, to the international project of creating autonomous stations “Snezhinka” – an innovative development of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology? It is an autonomous Arctic station powered by pure hydrogen. The oil runs out, the water stays. Therefore, Germany, the USA, China and others are creating hydrogen stations, engines and modules in front of them. And Russia's “Snowflake” has aroused great interest at the 37th International Oil Exhibition ADIPEC-2021.
They were mainly interested in the UAE. We agreed that Sněžinka would serve as a prototype for the creation of a similar station, a “living laboratory” for testing the clean technologies of the future. Snowflake-2 will be built in Abu Dhabi at Khalifa University. The project may be experiencing problems
nowThe sanctions unexpectedly imposed by the US on Physts could be related to the Snowflake project, MK asked a doctor of technical sciences, a member of the public council under the Ministry of Energy Vladimir Tetelmin .
– There is such a possibility. While I can't say the project involves some essentially new, groundbreaking hydrogen technology, Tetelmin said. – Generally speaking, hydrogen fuel cells are nothing new, in China, hydrogen buses run with the main power. They have already produced a number of such buses for the future Olympics. In general, all our success is detrimental to the United States, no wonder here. And satellite technology when we recently filmed our own satellite. And now they're afraid we can blind their entire army. Or hypersonic missiles, or something else. That is why it is difficult to say unequivocally here. But if we assume that they are generally trying to slow us down in all directions, big and small … Then it could be “Snowflake”. Or something else. Unfortunately, we have very difficult relations with the United States and the West.