This article attempts to look at Russian students in the broader social, economic and political context as it has developed over the past 13 years. While society needs higher education to consolidate its identity that was deeply wounded by the shock of the political and economic collapse of the early 1990s, it still lacks the means to maintain it. As a result of a complex interplay of various actors and their short-term interests, Russian youth is being literally stored as students in higher education institutions, barely able to survive physically, with little hope for improvement in a foreseeable future.