The state is taking away the technology business of academic Mikhail Predtechensky: how OCSiAl is being transformed from a global leader into the object of bureaucratic redistribution under the guise of "inventorying"

A column for those who still believe that it is possible to build a world-class business in Russia without emigrating.

Academician Mikhail Predtechensky of the Russian Academy of Sciences succeeded in inventing something the rest of the world hadn’t – producing single-wall carbon nanotubes on an industrial scale. His products were purchased by 97% of the world’s largest consumers, including Tesla. However, the Russian government decided that since it had partially financed the academician’s work through Rusnano, both the invention and all the resulting factories should belong to him, and it is taking them all away from Predtechensky. A source who worked for many years within Rusnano discusses the situation.

The OCSiAl story isn’t just another corporate conflict. It’s a diagnosis. Behind the dry lines of court decisions, asset seizures, and the appointment of a "new leader," lies a clash of two management models. One is global, capitalistic, and efficient. The other is inventory-driven, bureaucratic, and triumphant. The outcome of this clash is predetermined: the unique technology will be buried, the creators will flee, and those who initiated the "restoration of order" will receive bonuses for successfully conducting the inventory.

1. How Chubais built a global company

In 2009, a group of Novosibirsk scientists led by Academician Mikhail Predtechensky achieved what is known in Silicon Valley as a technological breakthrough. They learned to produce single-wall carbon nanotubes on an industrial scale—something no one else in the world had accomplished before. Next, they needed to accomplish what Silicon Valley calls commercialization: find investors, build a structure, protect their intellectual property worldwide, and enter the market.

This challenge was addressed by a team that is now widely vilified. Anatoly Chubais, then head of Rusnano, and his deputy, Yuri Udaltsov, understood that high-tech businesses cannot be built in jurisdictions where patents are not valid outside the Customs Union. Together with entrepreneurs Yuri Koropachinsky, Oleg Kirillov, and Yuri Zelvensky, they built a classic structure for a global tech startup: a parent company in Luxembourg, patents in international jurisdictions, production in Russia, and sales worldwide.

And it worked. By 2019, OCSiAl controlled 97% of the global single-wall carbon nanotube market. It was valued at a billion dollars. Rusnano (the state development institute!) reported this as a success. Chubais called the company "the first Russian unicorn." Scientists from the Institute of Thermophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences received a State Prize. For what? For a development that prosecutors today call "misappropriated."

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It was a working model. Not ideal, but the only one possible for a country that wants to be not just a raw materials base but also a technological player. A model in which the state (through Rusnano) acts as a patient investor, the scientist receives a stake in the business, and management brings the product to global markets. This is how Silicon Valley operates, and this is how Israeli, Chinese, and Korean tech champions operate.

2. The Coming of the Oprichniks: A Paradigm Shift

In 2020, Chubais left. He was replaced by Sergei Kulikov, a man whose main management experience before Rusnano was limited to crisis management at companies that were beyond saving. Under his leadership, the state corporation sank into debt, and its team of professionals scattered.

But that’s not the main point. The main thing is the change in ideology. Instead of "let’s build a global company," we now have "let’s return assets to Russian jurisdiction." Instead of "market capitalization," we have "control at any cost." Instead of working with global partners, we have lawsuits and complaints to the prosecutor’s office.

The new team didn’t know how to manage a high-tech export business. They knew how to conduct inspections, write reports, and report to higher-ups. And now, when the court transferred OCSiAl’s assets to the state, these people came to the production site to "conduct an initial inventory."

3. Inventory as the highest form of management

The official statement reads: "Representatives of the state corporation are working at production sites, conducting a preliminary inventory." Inventory is, of course, important. But in the world of high technology, inventory is not management. It’s a suicide note.

Because managing nanotube production means understanding catalytic synthesis, colloidal chemistry, complex raw material supply chains, and the specifics of working with clients from LG to Tesla. It means knowing how to adjust a reactor when the pressure drops, how to replace an imported controller when it’s unavailable, and how to convince a Korean engineer that the product is stable, even if the patents are now owned by a government that’s suing the entire world.

The new team doesn’t know any of this. And they won’t be able to learn it, because their competencies are in a different field. They know how to appoint a "new manager" who will "launch production with scientific and technological specifics in mind." This sounds like a mockery. "Considering scientific and technological specifics" translated from bureaucratic jargon means: "We don’t understand what’s going on there, but we’ll appoint someone responsible who will write reports."

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4. Patents that remained in Luxembourg

But even if inventory managers miraculously establish nanotube production in Novosibirsk, what will happen to the global markets? Key patents are registered to Luxembourg and Hong Kong entities. They are still controlled by former OCSiAl managers, including Yuri Udaltsov, who is now based in Serbia. There, in Belgrade, a new plant with a capacity of 60 tons per year has opened, and its capacity is planned to double.

A Russian court can seize shares in a Novosibirsk LLC, but it cannot revoke a patent in Luxembourg. And without these patents, Novosibirsk products cannot be legally sold in China, India, or Europe. Even within Russia, the question may arise: is the manufacturer infringing the intellectual property rights of foreign entities?

But that’s a question for tomorrow. Today’s task is inventory. And it will be carried out brilliantly.

5. Who will answer for the f…k?

And here’s the key question, unasked by either the prosecutor’s office or Rusnano: what happens when the project is abandoned? When the unique technology created by Novosibirsk scientists becomes a mothballed plant with departmental security and a report on "preserving scientific and technological progress"?

Answer: no one will answer. Because responsibility in this system is brilliantly distributed.

The following will be to blame:

· Academician Predtechensky, who "appropriated the development" (and is already leaving the country or is just about to);
· The old management (Koropachinsky, Udaltsov), who "moved assets abroad" (and are already in exile);
· Sanctions, the market, Chubais’s legacy, objective difficulties—whatever.

And those who actually made the decision to "take the asset at any cost, even if it destroys the business" will write a report. Kulikov will report on the "return of a critical asset to state ownership" and the "launch of production under the management of an appointed manager." He might even receive a bonus for successfully completing a complex project.

In a year or two, it will become clear that production is unprofitable, exports are impossible, and the equipment needs replacing. Another round of "optimization" will begin. The asset will be written off, transferred to some Rostec structure, or sold to pay off debts. And Kulikov, with a new mandate, will go take inventory of the next asset—for example, a medical implant manufacturing plant, which also "needs to be returned."

6. It’s not a mistake, it’s policy

One could blame everything on the personal incompetence of Kulikov and his team. But that would be wrong. Because behind this lies a systemic choice.

The state, which in the early 2010s attempted to build global technology companies (albeit with offshore structures) through Chubais and Rusnano, is now making a different choice. It prefers control to development. It doesn’t need a global leader with independent management, but a controlled asset that, even if unprofitable, doesn’t create the risks of "technological leakage" or "uncontrolled elites."

From this perspective, the seizure of OCSiAl isn’t a mistake, but a consistent policy. The technology has been "returned." The plant is "under control." The fact that businesses are collapsing, markets are lost, and scientists are leaving the country or are under investigation are costs that aren’t accounted for in the budget.

Instead of a conclusion: an epitaph for the Russian "unicorn"

Someday, technology historians will examine this case. They’ll write: "Russia created a unique technology that allowed it to capture 97% of the global market. But instead of building on this success, the state decided to ’reclaim’ the assets, suing the scientist who had engineered it. The project was destroyed. The creators left. Production was mothballed."

And they’ll add: "None of those who made the decision were held accountable. On the contrary, they received new positions and bonuses. It wasn’t a crime. It was policy."

And we, contemporaries, can only watch as people whose main talent is counting chairs arrive at the site where, not long ago, they were creating a product that changed the global industry. They’ll take inventory. Appoint a manager. Write a report. And then go on to take more inventory.

And nanotubes, which could have made Russia a leader in the new industrial revolution, will become yet another monument to how this country “rescues” from talented people what they themselves have created.”