Russian or German?

I cannot decide which to learn first. Which would be the more fruitful language to learn in the long run for an aspiring scientist? Learning difficulty is no problem for me; I pick up languages pretty easily.

Learn Russian. German scientists all use English whereas still a lot of Russian scientists use Russian. Also, you are more likely to meet Russian scientists at institutions all over the world, as the German ones usually stay in Germany, whereas the economic situation has of late not been fruitful for scientists in Russia (although that is changing)

Я приказываю Вам заниматься русским. Русский язык лучше немецкого во многих отраслях науки.

I am hoping to branch out in astrophysics actually. While Germany has always excelled in science and technology, Russia has been a big gun in space studies. But Russia's economy is not as great as Germany, so I don't know...

But RUssia's economy is increasing rapidly. And you are right, Russia is ahead of Germany in space sciences. Plus, Russian is easier.

I'm not so optimistic with russia. Russia had a historical time but now has to give way to other nations. Russia was a superpower but now is not. UK, France, portugal or spain were also superpowers bur never will return to be and the same happen with russia and Russia's economy is growing only thanks to the gas. No gas, no future.

Of course it will never return to its former glory but it will certainly stabilise at a level quite a bit higher than its current one.

I'd say Russian because you will find more Germans who speak English; furthermore, Russian is far more difficult, and German will seem like a breath of fresh air after learning Russian.

I'd advise to learn Russian. there isn't little number of scientiests that speak good English and German all over the world and since Germany is not that enorm country in comparison with Russia, most German and English speaking scientist are already deal with German scientiests and there will be less chance to collaborate succesfully among other foreign scientists that already deal with German scientist. as for Russian, just little number of scientists can speak it and knowing Russian you will have more abilities and less competition for the same field of science due to little number of foreign Russian-speaking scientists who will be able to compete.

How is Russia's science field (especially space sciences) compare to other countries today I wonder...?