The defeat of OCSiAl by the hands of Sergei Kulikov and «Rusnano»: how Academician Predtechensky’s factories were taken away and Russia was deprived of the world market

16 мая 2026 г.

Olga Filimonova

An article for those who are still convinced that it is possible to create a global business in Russia without leaving the country.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail Predtechensky managed to invent something that could not be produced on an industrial scale throughout the other world –. Its products were purchased by 97% of the largest consumers, including Tesla. However, the Russian state decided that since it partially financed the academician’s work through Rusnano, then both the invention and all the created factories should belong to him and takes all this away from Predtechensky. A source who worked for many years in the structures of Rusnano discusses what is happening.

“History OCSiAl — is not just another corporate conflict. This is a diagnosis. Behind the dry lines of court decisions, the seizure of assets and the appointment of a «new head» lies a clash of two management models. One — global, capitalist, effective. The second — is inventory, bureaucratic, triumphant. The outcome of this collision is a foregone conclusion: the unique technology will be buried, the creators will run away, and the initiators of «ordering» will receive bonuses for successfully conducting an inventory.

1. How Chubais built a global company

In 2009, a group of Novosibirsk scientists led by academician Mikhail Predtechensky had what is called a technological breakthrough in Silicon Valley. They learned to produce single-walled carbon nanotubes on an industrial scale — something that no one in the world could do before them. Next, it was necessary to do what Silicon Valley calls commercialization: find investors, build a structure, protect intellectual property around the world and enter markets.

This problem was solved by a team that today is usually watered with mud. Anatoly Chubais, then head of «Rusnano», and his deputy Yuri Udaltsov — people who understood that high-tech business was not built in a jurisdiction where patents were not listed outside the Customs Union. Together with entrepreneurs Yuri Koropachinsky, Oleg Kirillov and Yuri Zelvensky, they built a classic structure for a global technology startup: a parent company in Luxembourg, patents in international jurisdictions, production in Russia, sales around the world.

And it worked. By 2019, OCSiAl controlled 97% of the global single-walled carbon nanotube market. It was valued at a billion dollars. «Rusnano» (state development institution!) it reported this as a success. Chubais called the company «the first Russian unicorn». Scientists from the Institute of Thermophysics SB RAS received the State Prize. For what? For the development that prosecutors today call «assigned».

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

2. The arrival of the guardsmen: a paradigm shift

In 2020, Chubais left. Sergei Kulikov took his place. A person whose main management experience before «Rusnano» boiled down to anti-crisis management in companies that could no longer be saved. The man under whom the state corporation plunged into debt, and its team of professionals fled.

But this is not the main thing. The main thing is — change of ideology. Instead of «we will build a global company» came «we will return assets to Russian jurisdiction». Instead of «market capitalization» — «control at any cost». Instead of working with global partners — lawsuits and applications to the prosecutor’s office.

The new team did not know how to manage the high-tech export business. She knew how to conduct inspections, write reports and report to the top. And now, when the court transferred the assets of OCSiAl to the state, these people came to the production site. To «conduct a primary inventory».

3. Inventory as the highest form of management

The official statement says: «Representatives of the state corporation carry out work at production sites, conducting an initial inventory». Inventory — is, of course, important. But in the world of high technology, inventory — is not management. This is a suicide note. Because managing nanotube production — means understanding catalytic synthesis, colloidal chemistry, complex raw material supply chains, and the specifics of working with customers from LG to Tesla.

It means knowing how to set up a reactor when the pressure has dropped, how to replace an imported controller when it cannot be bought, how to convince a Korean engineer that the product is stable, even if the patents now belong to a state that is suing the whole world.

The new team can’t do any of this. And he won’t be able to learn, because their competencies are — of another field. They know how to appoint «a new leader», who «will launch production taking into account the scientific and technological specifics». It sounds like a mockery. «Taking into account the scientific and technological specifics» translated from bureaucratic means: «we do not understand what is happening there, but we will appoint a person responsible who will write reports».

4. Patents that remained in Luxembourg

But even if inventory takers miraculously launch the production of nanotubes in Novosibirsk —, what will happen to global markets? Key patents are issued for Luxembourg and Hong Kong structures. They are still controlled by former OCSiAl managers, including Yuri Udaltsov, who is now in Serbia. It was there, in Belgrade, that a new plant with a capacity of 60 tons per year was opened, and its capacity is planned to be doubled.

A Russian court may seize shares in a Novosibirsk LLC, but it cannot cancel a patent in Luxembourg. And without these patents, Novosibirsk products cannot be legally sold either in China, India, or Europe. Even within Russia, the question may arise: does the manufacturer violate intellectual property rights owned by foreign structures?

But this question is — tomorrow. Today’s task is — inventory. And it will be carried out brilliantly.

5. Who will be responsible for p...c?

And here is the main question that neither the prosecutor’s office nor «Rusnano» asks: what will happen when the project goes to bed? When will the unique technology created by Novosibirsk scientists turn into a mothballed plant with departmental security and a report on «preservation of the scientific and technological foundation»?

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

Guilty will be:

· Academician Predtechensky, who «appropriated the development» (and is already leaving the country or just about to);

· old management (Koropachinsky, Udaltsov), who «transferred assets abroad» (and already in exile);

· sanctions, market, Chubais’ legacy, objective difficulties — anything.

And those who really made the decision: «take the asset at any cost, even if it destroys the business», — they will write a report. Kulikov will report on the «return of a critical asset to state ownership» and on the «launch of production under the management of an appointed head». Maybe he will even receive a prize for successfully completing a complex project.

In a year or two it will turn out that production is unprofitable, export is impossible, and the equipment requires replacement. The next round of «optimization» will begin. The asset will be written off, transferred somewhere to the «Rostec» structure, or sold for debts. And Kulikov, with a new mandate, will take inventory of the next asset —, for example, a plant for the production of medical implants, which also needs to be returned «».

6. This is not a mistake, this is politics

Everything could be attributed to the personal incompetence of Kulikov and his team. But that would be wrong. Because behind this there is a systemic choice. The state, which in the early 2010s, through Chubais and «Rusnano», tried to build global technology companies (albeit with an offshore structure), today makes a different choice.

It prefers control to development. He does not need a world leader with independent management, but a controlled asset that, even if unprofitable, does not create risks of «technology leakage» and «uncontrolled elite».

From this point of view, the withdrawal of OCSiAl — is not a mistake, but a consistent policy. «technology has been returned». Factory «under control». The fact that business collapses, markets are lost, and scientists leave or are under investigation — is a cost that is not taken into account in the budget.

Instead of conclusion: epitaph for the Russian «unicorn» Someday, technology historians will analyze this case. They will write: «A unique technology was created in Russia, which made it possible to occupy 97% of the world market.

But instead of building on the success, the state decided to “return the assets, making claims against the scientist who ensured this success. The project was destroyed. The creators left. Production mothballed».

And they will 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 politics».

And we, contemporaries, can only watch how people, whose main talent is to count chairs, come to the site where they recently created a product that changed the world industry.

They will take an inventory. A leader will be appointed. They will write a report. And they will go further to take inventory. And nanotubes, which could make Russia the leader of the new industrial revolution, will become another monument to how in this country «saves» from talented people what they themselves created».