This article addresses the key features and the state of research in Russian higher education establishments. It examines measures taken to support research in universities and to integrate R&D with higher education since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Even though Russia's economy has returned to growth-on the back of higher oil prices-the financial crisis of 2008-09 will continue to reverberate across Russian politics and foreign policy. Domestically, the crisis has called into question the "social bargain" of the Putin years. It has also complicated President Dmitry Medvedev's push for economic liberalization and modernization.

Russia is facing demographic challenges that are common to all developed countries, but significantly aggravated by a range of historic circumstances that have become highly unfavorable over the course of many demographic processes. Among the main challenges are very high mortality, very low fertility and, as a result, the continued negative natural increase and overall population decline in the country. Now, these challenges are exacerbated by new ones, connected with a worsening age balance, the decrease in working-age population and the growth of dependency ratio, especially as a consequence of an ageing population.

Even if an active and effective demographic and migration policy were to be implemented in Russia, it would be impossible to reach the fundamental turning point in the demographic situation-stabilization and growth in Russia's population-in the near future. For this reason, a sound policy should involve striving for change in areas that can, in principle, be changed (decrease in mortality, some growth in fertility, attraction and integration of a reasonable number of migrants), and, at the same time, adapting economic and social institutions to those elements of the new demographic reality that cannot be changed (decrease in population, ageing population, etc.).

This article outlines the developments in Russian-American cooperation in the area of higher education since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It reveals the fundamental problems that have arisen in this partnership and draws conclusions about the necessity of moving away from technical aid towards a new model of cooperation between Russia and the United States in this sphere. It makes practical recommendations for the more effective integration of Russian universities into the global educational space.

The higher education reform underway in Russia is part of a much broader state reform project. Launched in 2004 at the start of Vladimir Putin's second term, this "administrative reform" grants the federal state the means to reclaim the public sphere, which largely escaped from its control during the 1990s. Energy incomes having considerably improved the public finances in the 2000s, the state can now consider reinvesting in and restructuring the public sphere as a whole. Its involvement cannot be seen as the construction of a "welfare state," but comes rather closer to an entrepreneurial state at the head of sectorial trusts aiming to be competitive on global markets. Such as it appears today, the restructuring of higher education is key to understanding how the formation of this entrepreneurial state is conceived and what possible structural uncertainties could arise.

This paper is based on the seminar presentation "Higher Education in Russia, Potential and Challenges," which took place on 28 January 2008 at the Institut français des relations internationales (Ifri).