A veteran of the Soviet and Russian electronic industry, chief designer of the BIUS development Yuri Maslennikov, said that the development of microelectronics in Russia may stall if a mass civilian demand for domestic products is not created. He wrote about this in an article for the D-Russia portal.
According to him, the experience of previous years shows: no demand - the manufacturer languishes. After the collapse of the USSR, defense orders decreased sharply, and civilian industries (automotive, machine tool, household appliances) remained at the level of the 70s and could not support the electronic industry. The West survived this period more easily precisely because of the mass civilian consumer.
Today, Maslennikov believes, the development programs for microelectronics until 2030–2035 do not rely on the formed demand of manufacturers of civilian products. Without subsidizing such manufacturers and without keeping prices at the level of imports, domestic microelectronics may be born, but it will wither on the vine.
Firstly, it is necessary not only to look favorably, but to intensively subsidize (at least no less than in the development of microelectronics itself) the continuous growth in the number of the most diverse manufacturers of civilian products - consumers of electronic equipment. And it seems to me that there is not a word about this yet. And, secondly, to be prepared for such a subsidized production of electronic equipment itself, which will allow, I think, for a rather long time to keep selling prices at the level of imports. I doubt that this is included today in the plans for financing the development of electronic equipment and, above all, microelectronics.