This article aims at describing empirical results dealing with scientific achievements of the Doctors of Science in their middle age, who are working in the Russian Academy of Sciences. It was revealed that international scientific achievements show a weak negative correlation to scientific achievements in Russia. These results let us assert that scientific competence and social capital that determine scientific achievements in both – international and Russian sciences – are different and somewhere alternative. The results also revealed that the citation index is an insufficient predictor for scientific achievements in Russia, whereas international scientific achievements yield more precise outcome.