Vedomosti, July 2, 2013

An action against the reform of the Academy of Sciences started in St. Petersburg. Interfax called it “a special meeting in the open air” and according to the news agency, several hundred people took part in it. According to Fontanka.ru, about 200 hundred people participated in the rally which took place outside Saint Petersburg Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the Universitetskaya Embankment. The scientists called the authorities to stop the consideration of the bill on the reform of the Academy of Sciences. They believe such a reform will damage Russia’s science and the strategic interests of the country. The participants of the rally called their colleagues in the other regions of the country to join the protest. The action took place under the following slogans: “Ultraliberal government should retire” “Rosscience service? No, thanks!”, “Timeservers, hands off science!”
About 400 hundred people in Moscow took part in a demonstration earlier today. According to Gazeta.ru, the council of young scientists of the Academy of Sciences held the action. The participants brought “a black coffin of Russia’s science” to the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences.
The same action took place in the science campus in Novosibirsk. Several scores of young scientists gathered in one of the main streets. The Presidium of the Academy of Sciences in Tomsk also disapproved of the reform.

The law which the government announced on June 27 envisages a merger of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences. A special Agency for Academic Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) will be established under the Government for control over the institutions and the assets of the Russian Academy of Sciences. On July 1 the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences did not support the reform and proposed to postpone it and discuss it with the academic community. The Duma Council decided to give the bill its first reading within the spring session and the second and the third readings will take place within the autumn session.

Photographs by Vedomosti

see also: Bureaucratic reform of the Russian Academies is inadmissible