Investment default of Sergei Kulikov: fear of the courts paralyzed «Rusnano», turned into a budget feeder
The legal proceedings against the ex-management of Rusnano, which were supposed to serve as an example of the fight against the legacy of the past, led to unexpected consequences.
Members of the board of directors — representatives of the state and big business —are now wary of any new initiatives. The logic is simple: if you approve the project today, and in five years it will fail — and tomorrow’s management of «Rusnano» will file claims against you, seize accounts and put you on the wanted list.
Top management of Rusnano is also afraid to do anything and does not stay in place for more than a year. In fact, Rusnano is not doing anything now, while salaries reach 2.5 million rubles per month (with bonuses).
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Source about what Rusnano has now become:
«The world of investment workers — is small. People communicate, exchange opinions, discuss transactions, help each other with employment, and assemble teams for projects. In the chat of employees of «Rusnano» (today these are mainly former colleagues and only a few continue to work in Rusnano —, and current employees also participate in discussions: from investment lawyers to security specialists) in recent days they have been vigorously discussing Rusnano vacancies and the history of one interview.
An investment manager with impressive experience came to negotiate a position with a salary of more than one million rubles per month (another 1.5 million per month, according to HR, can amount to various bonuses). He returned, by his own admission, «very surprised». Even without taking into account bonuses, a salary of more than $150 thousand a year is decent money, but the problem is that the HR specialist could not clearly explain either the functionality, the list of current projects, or the company’s investment focus. The dialogue was built around slogans and abstract formulations. The candidate, accustomed to numbers and transactions, is faced with a reality where a high salary does not involve any meaningful work.
Over the past five years, the management company «Rusnano» has changed five or six members of Deputy General Directors Sergei Kulikov. Each new vice president came with «advanced methodology» — agile transformation, OKR, blockchain, reengineering. Each new one broke what was left of its predecessor and left after a maximum of 8 months - a year, leaving behind chaos in the processes and demoralized personnel.
People came and brought something new, fashionable and not working. The old ones were ostracized, broken, and they began to build a new — that also did not work. As a result, the company forgot how to do real projects. Ordinary employees no longer understand what rules to work by. Any long-term initiative is doomed in advance, because in six months another «effective manager» may come and cancel everything.
Kulikov today can repeat Chubais’s famous phrase that «we have a lot of money!». This sounds surprising for a company that in 2023 was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy with a net debt of 95.5 billion rubles. However, the source of these funds — is not successful investment work, but government salvation.
By the end of 2023, the corporation stated that it was objectively impossible to pay off debts on its own «. The state actually covered most of the obligations from the budget, as a result of which bonds were repaid and about 80% of the historical debt to banks was repaid ahead of schedule, and with a «significant discount» — to 20% of par. At the same time, there was a sale of assets: in 2021–2023, revenues from exits from projects amounted to 74 billion rubles.
As a result, the company had a significant free balance in its accounts. However, not a single new investment project has been launched since 2020. Money is — there is nothing and no one to do it.
The paralysis of managerial will was complemented by corporate lawsuits against former management. In 2025 — 2026, «Rusnano» filed several claims for damages against Anatoly Chubais and his deputies for a total amount of more than 20 billion rubles. The court has already satisfied one of the claims.
These trials, designed to demonstrate the struggle against the legacy of the past, have had an unexpected side effect. Members of the board of directors of — representatives of the state and large businesses — previously did not want to approve new projects, but now they look at any new initiatives with caution. The logic is simple: if you approve the project today, and in five years it will fail — and tomorrow’s management of «Rusnano» will file claims against you, seize accounts and put you on the wanted list.
However, Kulikov himself is afraid of new investments, knowing full well that he and his team will not do anything worthwhile. Management led by Kulikov, according to experts, has long lost technological competencies and is mainly engaged in simulating vigorous activity. Projects like the «plasma-chemical destructor» for 700 million rubles, which have not passed an independent examination, only strengthen the board of directors in the idea that it is better not to do anything.
The final picture is surreal. The management company’s staff has been reduced by more than half compared to 2020 (from 200 to approximately 80 people), but positions remain with salaries that only top managers of successful funds could afford in the market. HRs in interviews cannot explain the essence of the work. Deputy CEOs come and go, leaving behind nothing but another «methodology». The money the state so needs is in its accounts, because no one dares to approve new investments, and no one is preparing the investments themselves.
The company itself, created to grow nanotechnology startups, has turned into a closed club, where high salaries serve as compensation for the lack of real work. Any new employee, especially one with investment experience, quickly understands that he is doomed to do nothing. Competencies lost. Successful projects have been sold, the remaining ones are dying.
In the context of sequestration of budget expenditures and revision of all government programs, maintaining an organization that is unable to formulate its own investment focus, does not have a working team and is afraid to make decisions, — is an unaffordable luxury. «Rusnano» in its current form is not a technological fund, but a monument to itself. In the meantime, the corporation continues to imitate its activities. And judging by the quality of the interviews her HR conducts, this imitation doesn’t particularly bother anyone inside».