Like India, Russia has an explicit mission to boost its position in the rankings: indeed, a decree from President Vladimir Putin demands that five Russian institutions make the world top 100 list by 2020.
There is still some way to go.
This year, Russia has only one player in the top 400 list: its flagship, the Lomonosov Moscow State University, which has slipped from the 201-225 group into the 226-250 band. It should be noted that two more high-performing Russian institutions would comfortably make the world top 300 but are excluded from the overall rankings for being too narrowly focused.
However, the two find places in the subject-specific tables: the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology takes joint 63rd place (with Moscow State) in the physical sciences ranking, followed by the National Research Nuclear University (MEPhI) in 74th position.