
UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT: If put in to law, the 436 institutes and 45,000 research staff of Russia’s primary basic-research organization will be managed by a newly established federal agency that reports directly to Putin. Image: Quirin Schiermeier
A controversial law has critics fearing the ‘liquidation’ of the nation’s science endeavors
Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved controversial reforms to the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) on 18 September. More than 330 members of the Duma voted in favor of the law, with only 107 against, in a move critics say will deprive the 289-year-old body of its independence and halt attempts to revitalize Russia’s struggling science system.
If, as is widely expected, the parliament’s upper house and Russian President Vladimir Putin approve the law, the 436 institutes and 45,000 research staff of Russia’s primary basic-research organization will be managed by a newly established federal agency that reports directly to Putin. The agency will manage the academy’s 60-billion-ruble (US$1.9-billion) budget and extensive property portfolio, which includes lucrative sites in Moscow and St Petersburg, and will also have a say in the appointment of institute directors.
Outside the Duma building during the vote, a group of outraged scientists protested the unpopular changes, which were first proposed in June without prior consultation of the RAS leadership.
They said that a number of amendments adopted in yesterday’s third reading — for example, that the Siberian, Ural and the Far Eastern branches of the RAS will remain under the academy’s jurisdiction, and a slight dilution of government interference compared with the initial bill — do little to avert harm to Russian science.
“This is not a reform — this is a liquidation of science in Russia,” says Alexander Kuleshov, director of the academy’s Institute for Information Transmission Problems in Moscow.
The Latest on: Russian Academy of Sciences
- The future of mass protests – Science freedoms curtailed – Endangered Baikalon January 27, 2021 at 3:53 am
As Russians flooded the streets over the weekend in solidarity with Navalny, we explain what this watershed moment means for Russia’s future; the Russian parliament takes away more creative freedoms ...
- Belarus, Russia announce science competition for Valentin Koptyug Prizeon January 25, 2021 at 7:39 am
The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NAS) and the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) have announced the 2021 edition of the competition for the Academician Valentin ...
- Results of Second Karabakh War hard to accept for Armenia, says Russian experton January 22, 2021 at 5:34 pm
We can observe that in Armenia the results of the Second Karabakh War are being taken with difficulty, Stanislav Pritchin, a senior employee of the Center for Post-Soviet Studies of the Inst ...
- Russian Chumakov Center submits documents for registration of its anti-COVID vaccineon January 19, 2021 at 11:21 am
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said on Monday the Chumakov Centre planned to submit registration documents to the health ministry on January 19 ...
- Experimental evidence of an intermediate state of matter between a crystal and a liquidon January 19, 2021 at 8:06 am
Scientists from the Joint Institute for High Temperatures Russian Academy of Sciences (JIHT RAS) and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have experimentally confirmed the presence of an ...
- Restoration of transport communications in S.Caucasus - major infrastructure construction project - Russian experton January 17, 2021 at 4:31 pm
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 The results of the trilateral meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia, and the Prime Minister of Armenia on unblocking all economic and transport links in the ...
- Russian awarded medal of German Physical Societyon January 15, 2021 at 9:30 am
Photo credit: pixabay.com The Max Planck Medal was awarded to the Russian-American physicist Alexander Polyakov. It is considered the highest honor of the German Physical Society ...
- Memorandum of Understanding between POI FEB, Russian Academy of Sciences and CSIR-NIO/NGRIon January 13, 2021 at 2:26 am
The POI is the largest research institution in the Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences comprising 31 research units equipped with modern scale devices. Whereas, CSIR-NIO and CSIR-NGRI, ...
- Russian academician expects end of coronavirus next yearon December 28, 2020 at 1:59 am
Pokrovsky, who is also a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was quoted by Russia Today website as saying that the rate of the virus outbreak will slow down in the year 2021, and it will ...
- MMC Norilsk Nickel: THE SIBERIAN BRANCH OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES PRESENTS A REPORT ON THEon December 14, 2020 at 12:32 am
THE SIBERIAN BRANCH OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES PRESENTS A REPORT ON THE RESULTS OF THE GREAT NORILSK EXPEDITION Field and laboratory studies became the basis for developing a report on the ...
via Google News and Bing News