Putin wants to "give up" on death: Russia is allocating 8 times more money to life extension projects

The Russian Science Foundation (RSF) has increased its funding for research into aging and life extension more than eightfold over the past five years. According to the foundation's website, the amount of support for such projects has increased from 21 million rubles in 2016-2020 to 172 million rubles in 2021-2025. In reality, the difference could be even greater, Novaya Evropa reports. The RSF board of trustees is headed by Putin's longtime friend and ally Andrei Fursenko.

In the current five-year period, the RIJ has supported 43 basic medicine projects related to aging, compared to only seven such projects in 2016-2020. The majority of them (34 projects) were approved in 2021-2023.

Supported projects include studying innate immune mechanisms in the formation of physiological and pathological aging, searching for markers to predict the course of aging, and studying the connection between changes in the brain and eye and Alzheimer's disease.

RIJ funds have also been allocated to Putin's eldest daughter, Maria Vorontsova, who heads the project "Regulation of cell renewal processes in the body, the fundamental basis for long-term preservation of the functional activity of organs and tissues, human health and active longevity."

Vladimir Putin's interest in the topic of life extension has been publicly expressed on several occasions. In particular, during a recent visit to Beijing, he discussed with Chinese leader Xi Jinping the secrets of extending life expectancy and the possibility of regular organ transplantation.