Dropped out of the election race, became one of the vice-presidents of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The general meeting began at almost 12:00 instead of the planned 12:00 - the new president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexander Sergeev, was late at a meeting of the government of the Russian Federation.
“The main impression that I received from this meeting is the desire of the authorities to start working with the newly elected president and the presidium as soon as possible,”
- Sergeev noted, opening the meeting at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
He also conveyed greetings to those present from Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he met on Wednesday, September 27. “The President told me: tomorrow be sure to say that the Academy of Sciences is the headquarters of science, the country needs it, we will help in every possible way so that the Academy of Sciences takes its rightful place again. By the style of the conversation, I really felt that we are very needed, ”Sergeev said.
Sergeev for the position of vice-presidents of 11 candidates, including academician Alexei Khokhlov, who had previously been one of the candidates for the presidency of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but then rejected his candidacy. In addition to him, the list included Valery Bondur,. Nikolai Dolgushkin was also proposed for the position of Chief Scientific Secretary of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The average age of the candidates was 64 years.
“A certain number of young people should appear in the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, for whom this work will be the main one.
I would like you to listen very attentively and kindly to my proposal on the composition of the presidium,” Sergeyev said. He also stressed that not a single surname "from above" was named to him.
The list of candidates for the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences according to the President's quota (30 people) includes all candidates for the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences - Vladislav, Evgeny,. In addition, Sergeev suggested, Zhores and Grigory Trubnikov. The hall unanimously supported the proposed nominations.
Voting was supposed to take place from 15:00 to 17:00, and the results were planned to be announced at 17:30-18:00. However, the voting started only after 16:30 - there were no ballots. According to the official version, the delay was caused by too much paperwork.
“The Academy has grown twice, but has not become twice as quick”, “This has never happened in 20 years”,
Academicians were talking indignantly among themselves.
Sergeev was afraid that he would not have time to vote: his press conference was scheduled for 18:00. However, at 17:30 he still managed to do it, and the press conference was postponed to a later time.
Despite the fact that Sergeev urged those present over the speakerphone not to disperse in order to maintain the quorum, some members of the academy could not stand the long wait. So, at about half past six, the corresponding member left the meeting. However, the quorum was eventually reached. At about six in the evening, those gathered finally managed to vote.
The remaining academicians, resigned, awaited the results of the vote. By half past eight, only 70% of the votes had been counted. The results were announced only at 21:20. They were announced by the chairman of the counting commission Alexander Lisitsa.
In order to become vice presidents, candidates had to collect a minimum of 569 votes. All the candidates proposed by Sergeev coped with this task. Most of the votes - 1081 - received Adrianov, the least - 952 - Khokhlov.
Academicians Dynkin, Egorov, Kirpichnikov, Kozlov, Lachuga, Smirnov, Starodubov, Stempkovsky, Tishkov, Tkachuk, Fortov, Shcherbakov became secretaries of the RAS departments.
The Presidium of the RAS included Academicians Abramova, Aldoshin, Aliev, Alferov, Bagaev, Bortnikov, Gulyaev, Dekabuadze, Dedov, Dolgushkin, Zabrotsky, Zeleny, Ivanov, Izmailov, Kablov, Kaprin, Kashevarov, Krasnikov, Kulikov, Kulchin, Logarkov, Litvak, Logachev, Makarov, Markovich, Matveev, Matishov, Month, Mikrin, Mikhailov, Moldovan, Mushnikov, Nigmatulin, Onishchenko, Panchenko, Poptsov, Parfiriev, Potapov, Rozhnov, Romanenko, Rubakov, Rumyantsev, Rokovanov, Sagdeev, Sadovnichy, Solomonov, Taimanov, Trubnikov, Tutelyan, Fesinin, Khomich, Tsivadze, Chetverushkin, Choinzonov, Shlyakhto.
Earlier, on September 26, Director of the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev at the election of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Sergeev was considered one of the favorites of the race. Academician Khokhlov, who dropped out of the list of candidates, called on his supporters to vote for Sergeyev.
“Wishing to ensure the development of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a modern organization, we decided to combine our efforts in the campaign for the election of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and in the subsequent period”,
Khokhlov said.
Supported the candidacy of Sergeev and, the former president of the Academy.
“When choosing a president, we must pay special attention to the fact that he must be a prominent scientist who enjoys our respect and will enjoy the respect of the authorities,” he said at the General Meeting on September 25.
The elections were held in two rounds, in the first round Sergeev and Robert Nigmatulin were in the lead with 681 and 276 votes respectively. The smallest number of votes (152) was given to Yevgeny Kablov.
In the second round, candidates needed 746 votes to win. Sergeev received 1045 votes, Nigmatulin - 412.
On Wednesday, the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree approving Sergeyev as the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Two more candidates - director of the Yekaterinburg Institute of Immunology and Physiology Valery Chereshnev and vice-rector of Moscow State University. Lomonosov Aleksey Khokhlov was not approved by the government without explanation. At the same time, Khokhlov was considered one of the favorites of the elections. On September 12, he called for voting for Sergeyev.
Background
The Russian Academy of Sciences was established by order of Emperor Peter I on February 8, 1724 to conduct fundamental research, until 1917 it was called Petersburg, and in 1925 - Soviet. The original name of the academy was returned in 1991. Members of the country's highest scientific institution are elected for life by the general meeting of the academy. They elect the President every five years.
The reform of the system of state academies of sciences began in 2013 at the initiative of the Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov. He oversaw the development of the relevant bill. The leadership of the Russian Academy of Sciences - President Vladimir Fortov and Vice President Zhores Alferov - refused to participate in the discussion of the bill. On September 27, 2013, President Vladimir Putin signed the law "On the Reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences", which deprived the academy of all its scientific institutes. They were reassigned to a new structure - the government-controlled Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FANO). In the Academy of Sciences, the appearance of FASO was perceived painfully - the agency deprived the Academy of property and funding.
Academy without property
The reform of science just began with property issues. In 2013, the academies of medical and agricultural sciences (RAMS and RAAS) were attached to the RAS, after which more than 1,000 organizations belonging to the academies were transferred to the management of FASO by government order. Part of the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences were merged into scientific centers. Now there are 668 scientific institutions and 168 enterprises in the FASO system.
At the beginning of the reform, not only in the Russian Academy of Sciences, but also in the government, they had a poor idea of what kind of property and in what quantity the academies disposed of. According to the results of the inventory carried out by FASO, almost 20% more land plots and capital facilities were found than were listed in the documents, the FASO press service reported. Part of the discovered property was written off due to poor condition, part was transferred to the regional authorities. But there is still a lot left. According to FASO, by September 2017, the balance sheets of its subordinate organizations included 2 million hectares of land and 30,777 capital construction facilities with a total area of 32.4 million square meters. m.
Academy without grants
Another part of the science reform was the establishment of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) to distribute grants for priority research. Its Board of Trustees is headed by former Minister of Education and Science, now Presidential Aide Andrey Fursenko. The headquarters of the fund is located in the center of Moscow on Solyanka, in the building of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. The premises were transferred to the foundation for free use by FASO, according to the annual report of the RSF.
Where RAS Presidential Candidates Offer to Seek Money for Science (Excerpts from Election Programs)
Vladislav Panchenko
Chairman of the Board of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR)
"The Russian Academy of Sciences should receive the status of the main body of scientific expertise in Russia"
Upon receipt of any licenses, permits, patents, certificates and other permits related to scientific activities and innovations or requiring scientific justification, the examination of the Russian Academy of Sciences should become mandatory, the academician believes. FASO should not complicate the life of Russian scientists, but become their main assistant in their work. It is necessary to move from formal, bureaucratic relationships to a type of communication in which scientific activity and its support will be put at the forefront.
Alexander Sergeev
Director of the Federal Research Center of the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
“It is necessary to create a fund for “instrumentalization” through the introduction of a “tax on science”
According to the academician, to finance science, it is necessary to create a special fund with a volume of at least 30 billion rubles. per year, which would be filled "due to the introduction of a "tax on science" levied on the profits of state corporations and large companies in raw materials." In addition, it is necessary to introduce a three-level system of state support for fundamental science, built according to the scheme “from understanding through competition to leadership”, and provide it with additional budget funding of at least 60 billion rubles. in year.
Robert Nigmatulin
scientific director of the Institute of Oceanology named after P. P. Shirshov RAS
“State-owned companies should allocate a share of their turnover to science”
The inefficiency of science is connected, among other things, with the lack of solvent demand for goods, and hence for new technologies and knowledge. The state should organize the demand for knowledge, the academician believes. He also proposes to create four trust funds with funding from the state budget: to update the measuring and observational base, to finance publishing activities, to repair and modernize institute buildings, and to provide social support to members of the RAS.
Evgeny Kablov
General Director of the All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials
"RAS should transfer the scientific audit of projects carried out at the expense of the state budget"
The Academy of Sciences should be given the right to consider any programs and projects related to scientific activity and innovation, become the country's main body for expertise and collection of scientific information to provide analytical materials to the authorities, the academician is sure. He proposes to transfer full-fledged expert functions to the RAS. Only an independent examination by the Russian Academy of Sciences will optimize the spending of funds allocated for scientific research in state corporations, scientific and research centers, the candidate believes.
Gennady Krasnikov
General Director of JSC Research Institute of Molecular Electronics
“We must take the maximum amount of money from federal targeted programs”
The Russian Academy of Sciences should become the main expert body for developing proposals for government agencies and state companies to optimize financial flows in science, the academician believes. The RAS can participate in the general coordination of the expenditure of budgetary funds for fundamental and exploratory scientific research. An additional source of funding for the RAS is in federal targeted programs for 500 billion rubles. per year related to science, to which the academy has no relation yet, the academician said.
Interfax-Siberia
From 2013 to 2016, the fund received 28 billion rubles. budget subsidies plus in 2015 a contribution of 14.9 billion rubles. from Rosneftegaz. Part of the RNF funds was placed on deposits with Promsvyazbank and Otkritie Bank. At the end of 2016, interest on them amounted to 3.9 billion rubles, according to the fund's statements.
The total is 47 billion rubles. Of these, 40 billion rubles. The Foundation has already issued grants for more than 2,500 scientific projects. The amount of grants ranges from 4–20 million rubles.
According to the Russian Science Foundation, the largest recipients of grants were not academic institutions, but Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University.
The effectiveness of projects, judging by the words of curators of science and the presidential decree on measures for state policy in the field of education and science, is assessed primarily by their citation. “Now many are trying to “digitize” fundamental research, and these attempts by officials to somehow share the money allocated for fundamental research are natural,” said Alexander Khlunov, director general of the Russian Science Foundation. “In order to simplify the work of officials, we provide data: how many millions we spent on the project and how many publications in Web of Science we received.” According to his calculations, on average, a grant of 5-6 million rubles. Russian scientists achieve a result that allows them to get more than five publications in the Web of Science.
On average, 10 billion rubles. The Russian Foundation for Basic Research (founded in 1992) also distributes budget subsidies a year; the council of the fund is headed by academician Vladislav Panchenko, a candidate for the presidency of the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to the RFBR report, more than half of the grants usually go to organizations subordinate to FASO: 58% in 2015, a third - to higher education institutions.
Expert Academy
According to the government-approved agreement on cooperation between FASO and the Russian Academy of Sciences, the agency forms and approves state assignments for scientific work, a program for the development of scientific organizations, and appoints directors of scientific institutes. The only thing left for the Academy of Sciences is the right to prepare its proposals on this part and coordinate the agency's proposals.
The reform turned the RAS into a club of academicians who have almost no influence on the bureaucracy and finances in Russian science, the main function of scientists from the Academy of Sciences has become a forecast and an expert function, academician Chereshnev was indignant. Despite the fact that the documents on the reform specifically noted that no scientific task for institutes is approved without the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, FASO began to redistribute money among the institutes. Moreover, no documents were received by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician Boris Kashin states. The new RAS has practically no levers of influence on science policy, he agrees: FASO gives the RAS an advisory vote, as a result, the management of science was taken away from scientists and handed over to officials.
How did this affect fundamental science?
Not development, but survival
The main problem in the development of domestic science is the reduced state spending on fundamental research, states Irina Dezhina, a leading researcher at the Institute for the Economy in Transition.
Due to scarce funding, the lion's share of the funds goes to the salaries of scientists, and one cannot even dream of updating the experimental base, Academician Kashin notes. According to him, in the field of experimental science, our country has lagged behind by decades, in terms of the share of spending on fundamental science in GDP, Russia is on the same level as Mexico (0.16%).
Similar principles
France tried to follow the same path of administration of fundamental science as in the USSR. There, in 1939, a structure similar to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was created - the National Center for Scientific Research of France (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS), which became the country's highest scientific institution. Now CNRS interacts with universities through the system of associated laboratories. In turn, Russia, when introducing new principles of financing scientific research, acted according to a foreign model. The Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) was created following the example of the US National Science Foundation (NSF). However, it turned out differently. The NSF team consists of officials who determine the most promising research areas for funding. A team of scientists is recruited for each new direction. The RFBR Council includes scientists who select projects for grants.
Grant funding in Russia does not fulfill the function of development, notes Dezhina. RFBR and RSF allocate little funds for initiative projects, the main money goes to support the priority areas they have chosen. The funding itself is not spent on supporting graduate students and young scientists participating in the project, conducting field research, expeditions, participating in conferences, purchasing instruments and materials, as is the case abroad, but goes mainly to increase low wages, she continues.
The Board of the Accounts Chamber came to the same conclusion after analyzing the activities of the Russian Science Foundation for 2013–2016, the agency reported. Although it is necessary to raise salaries: according to Putin's May decrees, the average salary of researchers should reach 200% of the regional average by 2018. But to achieve these indicators, you have to juggle numbers. Researchers are often put on a part-time basis, says Kashin, who work four or even two hours instead of eight hours. In this case, their real incomes do not grow, but formally the salary increases by 2-4 times.
Kashin believes that FASO should be subordinate to the Russian Academy of Sciences, and if the authorities have no confidence in scientists, then FASO can be assigned a control function. The citation of the works of mathematicians is several times lower than that of physicists, but this does not mean that they are idle, the academician explains. An adequate measure of the work of a scientist is only the assessment of colleagues from the Academy of Sciences, adds Kashin. Dezhina believes that separating institutes from the Academy of Sciences and subordinating them to FASO officials is not a vicious idea if the “two keys” principle is implemented in practice and the expert opinion of scientists is taken into account when determining research topics that will be provided with state funding. In addition, it is important to provide budgetary funding for large research topics initiated by the scientists themselves, she adds.
Russian science in the context of the world
Since 2006, Panchenko has been the head of the Institute of Molecular Physics of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", of which Kovalchuk is the president, and also heads the RFBR Council, which includes Kovalchuk. Panchenko answered journalists twice about the chances of being elected and closeness to Kovalchuk: in March 2017, he told the BBC “this is a difficult question and not a completely correct statement.” In an interview with Kommersant, Panchenko said: “Probably, you can say about any employee that he is the man of his boss. But the situation is not as primitive as some people perceive it due to various reasons related to the personal attitude towards M.V. Kovalchuk.
The administrative resource works for Panchenko, believes Mikhail Gelfand, deputy director of the Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This candidate is unlikely to win in the first round due to the large number of candidates, and in the second round there is a high probability of voting for any candidate against the one imposed by the authorities, Gelfand believes. Kovalchuk was repeatedly not elected a full academician and was not approved as director of the Institute of Crystallography, Kashin recalls. “The Kurchatov Center receives huge funding and is not accountable to anyone except the top officials of the country. The Academy of Sciences is critical of the content of some of the scientific research of the center, but due to the special status of the center, it is not able to influence its work,” Kashin believes. According to the Accounts Chamber, in 2016 the Kurchatov Institute spent 14 billion rubles. budget money. It is funded by a separate budget item.
The era of extensive development of science ended 30 years ago, with the fall of the Soviet Union, now there is not enough money for everyone, so it is necessary to choose priorities, an official of the presidential administration counters the claims. The academicians themselves could not do this: in response to a request to select 5–7 “breakthrough” priority areas, they brought, in fact, a 300-page annual report on the scientific activities of the academy, adding that everything they do is a priority, he continues. “Putting the question this way, they force officials to prioritize funding for them. Let them not be offended now, ”says the interlocutor of Vedomosti.
Representatives of FANO and Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who oversees science in the government, as well as the press service of the Russian Academy of Sciences, declined to comment.
Candidate Panchenko's speech reminded Brezhnev's speech
For the Russian science this week came the moment of truth. On Monday, in the Great Hall of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Leninsky Prospekt, 32 (the famous "golden brains"), the election of the President of the Academy began. Elections, which were actually disrupted this spring, are being held according to new rules. And they expect from them at least the appearance of a real leader who will be able to put an end to the protracted strife between scientists and officials, between the Russian Academy of Sciences and FASO.
However, can he? The first day of the general meeting was allocated to candidates for the presentation of programs. Watching the reaction of the audience, the correspondent of "MK" was able to estimate the approximate balance of power before today's vote.
There were few smiles in the hall that day - too much was at stake. All dressed to the nines. The seating arrangement in the hall drew attention: the scientists seemed to be divided into two camps. Left - candidates Yevgeny Kablov and Gennady Krasnikov, center - Acting President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Kozlov and head of FASO Mikhail Kotyukov, right - all other candidates (Nigmatulin, Sergeev, Panchenko). The director of the Kurchatov Institute, Mikhail Kovalchuk, was also seen among those present. “I came to cheer for my friend,” they whispered on the sidelines.
It is well known that Vladislav Panchenko, chairman of the RFBR Council, is Kovalchuk's “own” candidate.
Even the day before, the leadership of the Russian Academy of Sciences, represented by Acting President Valery Kozlov, sent out a message to all members of the academy about the procedure for holding elections. The procedure is quite strict: a short discussion of candidates is envisaged - by no more than four academicians. This caused indignation at the general meeting - after all, there were a lot of questions for the candidates. Academician Vladimir Zakharov expressed general dissatisfaction and demanded more time for discussion. Kozlov promised to extend it if necessary. The members of the academy, consisting of 1381 people, agreed, and the speeches of the candidates began.
The positions of Yevgeny Kablov and Gennady Krasnikov turned out to be largely similar. In particular, both spoke in favor of changing the status of the academy, that is, strengthening its powers. “To be honest, I liked their performances,” Valery Kozlov commented on these statements during the break. “I think that all candidates have a good chance of winning, except for those who set too unrealistic plans - for example, they offer to return all the institutions that came under the control of FASO after 2013.”
Who exactly proposed this, Kozlov did not specify.
“Why do you think it is impossible for the institutes to return to the RAS? - asked the correspondent of "MK". “After all, they were able to snatch them out of the academy quite quickly, transferring them to FANO?”
Academician Kozlov recalled the case of the transfer of academic institutions to the People's Commissariat for Commissariat Farms when Academician Keldysh was President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. But then, when this experience did not justify itself, they were very quickly returned back to the RAS. “Maybe it would be possible to return the institutions even now, but I think it would not happen too quickly, after all, a lot has changed in our system over the past four years,” Kozlov said.
The Acting President diplomatically kept silent about the essence of these changes. However, everyone understood him anyway.
Director of the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev made the most sincere, clear and knowledgeable speech. And the speech of the most scandalous candidate for the post of President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladislav Panchenko, caused a noticeable protest from the members of the Academy at the general meeting.
The 20 minutes allotted for him to present the program, Panchenko endlessly read from a piece of paper, which very much reminded him of the speeches of Secretary General Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. However, not even the style of speech, with which the calls to develop the digital economy were strangely linked (apparently, this was a reference to the statements of the President of the Russian Federation, who often uses this phrase recently), caused discontent among colleagues. Thus, Vladimir Zakharov reminded Panchenko that he was the only academician who supported in 2013 the disastrous, in the opinion of the majority, reform of the academy. And Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Askold Ivanchik emphasized that since Panchenko has been head of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the share of funding for institutes as a whole has decreased by 40%, but more funds have been directed to the so-called focused research, about which it is known in advance result (here, apparently, their engagement on the part of some oligarchic groups was meant).
Panchenko tried to react, but not too convincingly. So, in response to the remark about the “betrayal of the academy” in 2013, he said that he really considers the merger of three different academies into one a positive change, but he did not give clear arguments. And when answering a question about funding science, he escaped with a phrase from the category: everything is not as you said, in fact, everything is fine with us.
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Academician Vladislav Panchenko is considered one of the favorites in the upcoming presidential elections of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The process of preparing the election of a new president of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) has reached the finish line. Recall that the election of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences should be held on September 25 at the General Meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The new RAS president is to be officially announced on September 27th. This is the second attempt by academicians to elect a president. The first, in March 2017, was actually thwarted as a result of a “special operation” carried out by government officials: all three candidates for the highest academic post withdrew their candidacies.
The political and state leadership of the country decided not to let the September elections take their course. From the government, preparations for the elections were supervised by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Arkady Dvorkovich.
For the past six months, the academy has been in a unique situation. It was headed by Academician Valery Kozlov, Acting President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences prepared a new regulation on presidential elections. By July 25, the RAS had formed a list of candidates for the presidency, and it was sent to the government for approval - this is the new procedure established after the disruption of the elections in March.
Initially, this list included seven candidates for academicians: Evgeny Kablov - General Director of the All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials; Gennady Krasnikov - General Director of JSC Research Institute of Molecular Electronics, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC Mikron; Robert Nigmatulin - Scientific Director of the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. P.P. Shirshov;
Vladislav Panchenko - Scientific Director of the Institute for Problems of Laser and Information Technologies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the Council of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR); Alexander Sergeev - Director of the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Alexey Khokhlov - Vice-Rector of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Head of the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Polymers, Institute of Organoelement Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences; Valery Chereshnev - Director of the Institute of Immunology and Physiology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Basically, all of them were put forward by the branches of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Only two - Aleksey Khokhlov and Robert Nigmatulin - are self-nominated: they had to collect 50 signatures of their academic colleagues. With which they easily coped, collecting even more.
On August 31, the government of the Russian Federation, having considered the candidates submitted by the Russian Academy of Sciences, corrected the list. Two candidates are missing from the list approved by the government: Aleksey Khokhlov and Valery Chereshnev. Thus, the General Meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences on September 25 will elect the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences from five candidates. In the event of a successful completion of the elections, the candidacy of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences will be finally approved by President Vladimir Putin. By the way, he may not agree with the choice of academicians. And then he himself will appoint the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences - any of the academicians of his choice. Thus, the state actually ceased to consider the Academy of Sciences, at least relatively separate from it, the state, as a force. An academician, especially the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is now an ordinary civil servant.
Be that as it may, according to NG's information from sources in the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, "a fundamental instruction was given from above to hold elections."
For now, the following can be noted. The “screened out” academician Alexei Khokhlov is the son of one of the best, as many believe, rectors of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov in the entire Soviet history, Rema Khokhlova, was considered in academic circles as one of the desired candidates for the post of President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is well aware of the structure of European science (Honorary Professor at the University of Ulm, Germany). Khokhlov heads the Science Council under the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. In one of his interviews after he was approved as a candidate for the post of President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, he stated: “Considering my life experience, I would be more careful about the concept of democracy in science.” Most likely, the “jealousy” of the current rector of Moscow State University, Academician Viktor Sadovnichy, affected the government filter in his screening. According to another version, this candidate did not suit the corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, director of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute" Mikhail Kovalchuk. The latter in behind-the-scenes conversations is called one of the initiators of the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which began four years ago.
As for academician Valery Chereshnev, he himself, it seems, had no illusions about his candidacy. It said here that he had worked in the State Duma for 10 years. Apparently, the government simply did not want to "wash out" the votes in the elections and removed the "weak figure" from the board. It is all the more perplexing that Academician Robert Nigmatulin is left on the list. He is 77 years old, and according to the current regulation on elections, there is an age limit of 75 years. Everyone expected that it was he who would be cut off the list. But, as one of the academicians joked in an interview with NG, "the government simply cut off the last two candidates on the list."
Several independent sources told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that Academician Vladislav Panchenko is the government's favorite in the forthcoming presidential elections. According to our information, in some branches of the Russian Academy of Sciences they are trying to convince them to vote for the "authority's candidate." However, this will be difficult to do.
An NG source, on condition of anonymity, said that Panchenko has many complaints about the work of the RFBR, which he heads: “The work of the fund is not transparent. In addition, Panchenko has a heavy moral trail: after all, it was he who, in March of this year, actually became the initiator of the disruption of the presidential elections in the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has already withdrawn his candidacy and is running again. It's ugly." It should also be noted that Academician Panchenko turns 70 on September 15. Taking into account the government's policy of rejuvenating top management cadres, this can also play its role.
However, the option of an unexpected personnel decision is not ruled out. An NG source in the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that after the government decision to unhook the two academicians, the figure of academician Gennady Krasnikov could shoot. "For him - a powerful military-industrial lobby in the academy," said the interlocutor of "NG". - He is a member of the Military-Industrial Commission, headed by Vladimir Putin. Krasnikov leads the interdepartmental Council of Chief Designers for the electronic component base of the Russian Federation. With the government's declared course towards the digital economy, all this can play for him. In addition, he is only 59 years old. Again, that's a plus for him."
Georgy Bazykin: “Here we have the Academic Council and I would like to argue with the thesis that Lysenko was a scientist. I believe that Lysenko was not a scientist, but was a pseudo-scientist, and this is evidenced by the fact that almost his entire scientific career was built on falsifications. He was probably the greatest falsifier in the history of Soviet, and perhaps world science. The examples are numerous and well known. ... After he was caught by the hand in falsifications, he practically stopped publishing articles in scientific journals, except for his own journal on vernalization.
In the scientific environment, if a person is caught on falsifications, his scientific career ends. …If you lied, goodbye. This is how it should function and how it functions in the normal scientific community.
Lysenko did not bred any varieties, and wrote telegrams to the party and the government that he had bred them. ... He lied everywhere, not only in the pages of scientific journals."
“Lev Anatolyevich writes in his book and in the annotation to today's report that the scientific environment will not be able to develop if we are irreconcilable towards each other. I think exactly the opposite is true,” Bazykin said. – “The scientific environment in Russia and in the world will not be able to exist if truth and falsehood have equal rights, and they will equally lie on the scales. It seems to me that I have convincingly shown that Lysenko was lying,” Bazykin concluded.
“L.A. Zhivotovsky, who made the final remark, said that he agreed with most of the statements about Lysenko ...
I decided to write because since childhood I was worried about the question of why everything is smeared with one color, and it seems to me that we should try to do this [separate black and white]. I want, as it were, to equalize the scales, to say that no one has said ... ". (Here the author of the book involuntarily closed the circle of discussion, becoming an opponent of Yegor Bazykin, who, on the contrary, believes that it is impossible to balance truth and falsehood).
“I did not expect such a discussion to turn out. But I don’t repent, it was extremely interesting for me, ”the head of the institute emphasized. Robert Nigmatulin told a story about how a group of geologists was repressed, but the 86-year-old Academician Obruchev saved the geologist Zavaritsky from repression. “Life was like that, such was the time!”
every human court must have lawyers and prosecutors. If some other point of view comes out, let's listen to it!"
He said that he and Academician A.P. Some members of the 1st of July Club criticize Kuleshov for cooperating with FANO, even calling them traitors. “We did not create this FANO, and I, as the director of the institute, must establish normal relations with FANO, if I quarrel with him, then no one will be better off. Colleagues, let's get away from the cliché! We live in such a time… By the way, such people [like Lysenko] appear among us. I won't give a last name. He is the dean of such and such a faculty…, the director of such and such an institute… There are such people among us!” (It’s even scary to think who R.I. Nigmatulin had in mind!)"
