Recently, the Russian government has ordered evaluation and reform of the basic research system. As a consequence, the number of research staff at the Russian Academy of Sciences will be reduced by 20% by 2007. The basis for research evaluation and institute budgeting will be bibliometric indicators. In view of these changes we look at the Russian publication output and argue that(1) publication output and citedness have to be considered in relation to the level of expenditure on R&D;(2) bibliometric indicators depend strongly on the database used (ISI's databases are biased) and their interpretation can be confusing; better coverage of Russian publications or a Russian Science Citation Index are needed. Also, research results are communicated in more ways than paper publications.(3) policy makers have misused ISI statistics to demonstrate "a low level" of Russian R&D. Our paper is a part of a project designed to trace R&D development in a transition economy and knowledge transfer from basic research to innovation. Results of our project shed light on science policy and the social issues due to the indiscriminate introduction of quantitative indicators.

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