Statement by the YABLOKO party
June 28, 2013

The government has submitted [to the State Duma] a law on the reform of the Academy of Sciences without consultation with the academic community and on the eve of summer vacation of the State Duma.

The law 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. The staff of the Academy will subordinate to the federal bureaucracy, and its social services (out patient clinics, hospitals and health centres) are transferred to the
municipal authorities. Although formally RAS will be an independent organisation in terms of its charter and election of new members, in fact, it will be deprived of independence, because its institutions will not be able to independently solve their personnel and financial issues and will be deprived of operational management of the property. All issues, including allocation of financial resources and directions of future research will be decided by bureaucrats as far as they understand it.

Also the stake is made on the split of the academic community, as it is expected to eliminate the status of the corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, appointing all them academics, and as a “bonus” is proposed to double the academic scholarship for the academics.

We can see how the bureaucracy ‘manages’ property from the recent reforms by ex Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov; and the reform of militia/police demonstrates too well how it improves the efficiency of large organisations.

The Academy of Sciences is definitely in need of in-depth reforms, improving of academic efficiency (which is not equivalent to the
science citation index) and brining young people to science. However, we should realise that the main reason of aging of the staff and
reduction of the efficiency of the Russian Academy of Sciences lies not in the economic management over RAS, but in miserable funding of the academic science, growing bureaucratization of its activities and, which is also important, lack of demand in scientific achievements on behalf of the export-oriented raw material economy of the country.

That’s why young people do not go to science but choose business and administrative bodies. Candidates of science and doctors of science have to look for earnings in other sectors of the economy. Academics are distracted from their research by endless reporting and paper work, and receiving of grants, equipment and materials means unthinkable paperwork and red tape.

A real reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences should envisage, first of all, a substantial increase in its funding (from the present
1 per cent of GDP in the developing countries to at least 2 per cent of GDP), several fold increase of a basic salary (at present a person
with a Ph.D. received 20,000 rubles, which is equivalent to approximately Euro 480) and broadening of the temporary grants system.
A far greater autonomy and flexibility of the RAS and its institutions in human and financial affairs is required, along with
democratisation, competitiveness, enhancing openness in all administrative and financial activities, age limits and a regular
rotation of the managerial personnel and special benefits for young academics.

Science can be destroyed easily and quickly, but it is impossible to quickly restore it – this would take many decades. Our Academy of
Sciences enjoys world-known schools, natural national traditions and history of outstanding achievements. Rebirth and renewal of
fundamental science is impossible without this base, and without all this transition of the Russian economy to a high-tech innovation model impossible. The RAS reform should be conducted with great caution and care, it can not be carried out underhand or by an attack without consulting the scientific community.

The YABLOKO party, as well as the majority of Russian academics, assess the reforms announced by the Government as an attempt to
totally bureaucraticise and commercialise the RAS, which will not revive, but finally destroy the fundamental science. At present there are no reasons for adoption of hasty and ill-considered decisions. We are urging the Government to abandon the dangerous initiative and deploy a broad democratic discussion with authoritative representatives of the academic community on the best ways and means for modernizing the RAS.

For hundreds of years of its existence the Russian Academy of Sciences has gone through ordeals and the revolution of 1917, remained an ‘oasis’ of democracy, made outstanding achievements in Soviet times and survived the crisis 1990s. It will be an irreparable national disaster if this great work of Peter the Great comes to degradation and oblivion by its 300th anniversary.

Alexei Arbatov,
Academician, the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Member of the YABLOKO Political Committee

Sergei Mitrokhin,
YABLOKO Chair