Ensuring technological sovereignty in the Russian wine industry and corruption risks

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Introduction
Wine is a special agricultural product that can only partially be considered to satisfy the vital needs of a human, rather, here we are talking about the traditional cultural preferences of people. Winemaking is often associated with prestige, which attracts financially secure people with political and social influence to this industry.
It should be noted that the agro-industrial complex, which currently includes viticulture and winemaking, is included in the lists of activity areas with an increased level of corruption risks accepted at the federal and regional level in the Russian Federation [1]. Due to the above features, viticulture and winemaking not only shares this characteristic with other sectors of the agro-industrial complex, but concentrate corruption risks on them.
At the same time, winemaking can be considered one of the high-tech agriculture sectors. Given that Russia has objectively modest climatic opportunities for growing grapes for winemaking, technology plays a very serious role here. In the current conditions, the opportunities to use imported planting material, foreign technologies, and equipment are reduced, and the problem of "technological sovereignty" common to Russian industry and the Russian agro-industrial complex arises for viticulture and winemaking.
The problems of technologies in viticulture and winemaking are quite popular among modern foreign researchers [2,3,4]. In connection with the trend of ensuring independence and sovereignty [6,7] and with the entry into force of Federal Law No. 468-FZ dated December 27, 2019 "On Viticulture and Winemaking in the Russian Federation", the discussion about technologies in Russian viticulture is recovered. At the same time, the problem of corruption risks has not been considered before in relation to the development of viticulture and winemaking, including its technological component. Nevertheless, this issue cannot be ignored while solving important state tasks.

Methods and Materials
For the purposes of this article, we need to clarify several concepts and terms that we will rely on in the statement.
Corruption as a social phenomenon includes a wide range of phenomena that are quite difficult to describe. Nevertheless, the term corruption is repeatedly found in different documents. An example of an international document, here is the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials (adopted by UN General Assembly resolution 34/169http://www.un.org/ru/documents/ods.asp?m=A/RES/34/169 dated December 17, 1979). The note to Article 7 of the Code states that even though the concept of corruption should be defined in accordance with national law, it should be understood that it covers the commission or non-performance of any action in the performance of duties or because of these duties as a result of required or accepted gifts, promises, or incentives, or their illegal receipt whenever there is such an action or inaction. In Russian legislation, the definition of corruption is contained in Federal Law No. 273-FZ dated 25.12.2008 "On Combating Corruption", which generally reflects the above international definition. The most general approach used for economic purposes is that corruption is understood as the conversion of political capital into economic one [8].
It is equally important to define the concept of "technological sovereignty" for this research. The term was first mentioned in 1992 in the decree of the President of Russia on the issues of the Information and Analytical Center of the Presidential Administration, and by now it is already found in 32 different documents at the federal level. As reported in the media, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation is developing draft amendments to the Federal Law "On Industrial Policy in the Russian Federation" No. 488-FZ dated 31.12.2014, which defines technological sovereignty as a set of measures aimed at ensuring, developing, and retaining human, financial, technological, and material potential within Russia aimed at the development of Russian industry [9]. We will rely on the definition proposed in the draft amendments to the law.
In the course of the discussion, it is supposed to use the norms of current legislation, including the Federal Law No. 468-FZ dated December 27, 2019 "On Viticulture and Winemaking in the Russian Federation" (hereinafter the Federal Law "On Viticulture and Winemaking in the Russian Federation"), draft laws, other documents, mass media reports, and other information resources.
In this paper, general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis will be used. In addition, it is necessary to apply a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to the stated problem.

Results
Viticulture and winemaking are subject to corruption risks both in Russia and abroad. The Federal Law "On Viticulture and Winemaking in the Russian Federation", introducing a requirement for labeling wines produced from Russian and non-Russian grapes, created a shortage of raw materials for the production of wines labeled as Russian wines. With the adoption of the law, the number of "strange transactions" around vineyards and wineries has increased, in some cases with a noticeable corruption component. Due to the already existing corruption risks in viticulture and winemaking, similar risks are also increasing in the context of state support for technological equipment of the industry, as part of ensuring technological sovereignty.

Discussion
Despite the fact that viticulture and winemaking in most countries of the world and in the understanding of UN organizations refers to agriculture, in Russia, wine has been considered agricultural products only since 2013 [10]. In 2019, the industry received special legal regulation in the form of the Federal Law "On Viticulture and Winemaking in the Russian Federation". The law established the requirement that Russian wine can be produced only from grapes grown in Russia. It has become necessary to inform the consumer that the wine is only bottled in Russia or is not made from Russian grapes. Prior to the introduction of this requirement in 2018, only 65% of still and 40% of sparkling wines, called Russian, were produced from domestic raw materials [11].
After the adoption of the Federal Law, publications appeared in the central media about numerous strange transactions for the acquisition of vineyards and wineries [12,13]. Internet resources published information that a significant number of leading wineries in Russia somehow belong to officials and their relatives [14].
It would be an exaggeration to say that only in Russia the wine industry has an increased corruption potential. Quite a lot of manifestations of corruption of various kinds have been noted both in countries with long-standing wine-making traditions (for example, France [15]) and in countries of the so-called "new world" (for example, the USA [16]).
Certainly, the most acute issue of corruption risks arises in connection with state support of certain industries. With the adoption of the law, there was a significant shortage of Russian grapes of technical varieties and, accordingly, vineyards, which determined state support priorities. Since 2022, the implementation of the federal project "Stimulating the development of viticulture and winemaking" was launched. The main purpose of the new federal project is to increase the area of vineyards in the fruiting age by 35% by 2030. State support for viticulture and winemaking in the Russian Federation until 2030 will amount to more than 26 billion rubles [17]. It should be noted that digital technologies could play an important role here in determining lands suitable for vineyards and promising terroirs [18].
State support for viticulture and winemaking in Russia is not a temporary measure. Chapter 5 of the Federal Law "On Viticulture and Winemaking in the Russian Federation" offers a variety of state support measures that should be applied for the long-term development of Russian viticulture and winemaking. In particular, financial support is promised for activities related to ensuring the technological independence of the industry: for the implementation of research, scientific, technical, and innovative activities in the field of viticulture and winemaking, as well as for the development of industrial production of basic technological means and equipment used for the production of viticulture and wine products. One of the principles of providing all state support types is equal access for all interested and eligible entities [19], which is incompatible with manifestations of conflicts of interest and corruption. Considering the corruption risks that have already been identified in viticulture and winemaking in Russia, the development of technologies and ensuring technological sovereignty here is also associated with the prevention of conflicts of interest and corruption manifestations to effectively implement state tasks.

Conclusions
The examples given from various sources demonstrate that the viticulture and winemaking industry is subject to manifestations that can be characterized as corruption, where political influence is converted into economic factors. Viticulture and winemaking should be developed, including through the development of technologies and increasing technological independence. Like other branches of the agro-industrial complex, viticulture and winemaking need state support. Support of technological development may carry corruption risks that can already be identified in the wine industry after the adoption of the Federal Law "On Viticulture and Winemaking in the Russian Federation". These risks should be considered and their negative impact should be reduced.