Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian scientists to ‘hurry’ the development of a revolutionary anti-ageing treatment, that could greatly tackle the country’s declining life expectancy.
Mikhail Kovalchuk, director of the prestigious Kurchatov Institute, Russia’s premier nuclear research facility and President Putin’s ally has been actively lobbying for the initiative.
He ‘raves about eternal life and the ‘Russian genome,’ a Kremlin source said.
The directive came out in June 2023 through investigative reporting by Meduza and Sistema.
Russia’s goal for 2030
The instruction says doctors should urgently develop and submit proposals aimed at preserving and promoting the health and well-being of Russian citizens.
According to the reporting outlets, the goal is to ‘save 175,000 lives’ by 2030.
Details of the letter
In the letter, physicians were then requested to submit ‘development proposals’ focusing on mitigating the effects of cellular ageing, innovating technologies to prevent cognitive decline and sensory impairment, to create methods for modulating and correcting the immune system, and to develop 4Cutting-edge medical technologies leveraging bioprinting.
However, some researchers and experts are also concerned about the high costs of the research.
A Kremlin insider stated, ‘All the modern research discussed in the national project is quite expensive—developing new drugs costs billions. No single national project can handle that, especially now. I don’t think they will be able to put together anything meaningful quickly’.
