Russian universities rank poorly in international comparisons, and recent suggested reforms will not change this situation. There is an urgent need to find ways to improve the quality of Russia's higher education and to make it more appealing to scientists and to international students. In general, in order for the world to begin to appreciate and respect the higher educational institutions of Russia, it is essential within the country to rate them not on the basis of how long they have been in existence, the jobs that their graduates have, or the beauty of their buildings and the fame of their rectors, but on the basis of genuine and absolutely comparable indicators. What is needed is scoring in accordance with the strict standards of "Hamburg scoring": there is a need to eradicate chicanery when it comes to rating institutions of higher learning, as well as any special position that a few of them have. The situation in the case of Russian higher educational institutions' ability to compete internationally requires the creation, for the entire system of education, of most favored tax status; it requires making sure that the conditions necessary for training foreign students are comfortable in all respects. The task of improving Russian higher education's ability to compete must not call for suppressing mass higher education for the sake of enabling the relatively small sector of elite education to flourish; instead, both types have to be promoted simultaneously, taking account of the fact that they are mutually complementary. (Contains 5 tables, 2 figures and 10 notes.)