Academicians will study production – Kommersant newspaper No. 174 (7375) of 09/21/2022

General Director of the Research Institute of Molecular Electronics Gennady Krasnikov was elected the new President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He promised his colleagues to raise the authority of the academy and build a closer connection between its research and the priorities of the country’s scientific and technological development. Some academicians fear that the election of Mr. Krasnikov will lead to the strengthening of the position in the scientific world of the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” – the unspoken competitor of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Other scientists believe that the arrival of the “new team” will give a positive impetus to the development of the academy.

On Tuesday, September 20, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences elected a new president during the course. As suggested by Kommersant, Gennady Krasnikov, General Director of the Research Institute of Molecular Electronics, became it. He received 871 votes, while his opponent, Dmitry Markovich, director of the Institute of Thermal Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 397 votes. 122 ballots were declared invalid. However, the result of the vote does not yet mean that the new president of the academy will automatically take office – first he must be approved by President Vladimir Putin. But the academicians interviewed by Kommersant have no doubt that this will happen – while recalling the situation on the eve of the elections.

Recall, the day before the vote, physicist Alexander Sergeev, who had headed the Russian Academy of Sciences since 2017, withdrew his candidacy from the election. He stated that the campaign is taking place “under unprecedented conditions of psychological and even external administrative pressure.” Then several academicians told Kommersant that Alexander Sergeev could not resist “pressure from above”, and Yury Solomonov, general designer of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering, publicly stated that Mr. Sergeev’s candidacy “is not supported by the country’s leadership.” According to the academicians interviewed by Kommersant, Mr. Sergeev had every chance of winning, so “they decided to remove him in order to push through the desired candidacy.”

After the announcement of the results, the new head of the academy announced that he intended to start implementing the election program in the near future. It said that the Russian Academy of Sciences should become “an integrator of independent expertise, whose opinion is taken into account by authorities, large corporations and regulatory bodies.” In addition, the presidium of the academy should strengthen interaction with the administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the government, the State Duma and the Federation Council “when making fundamental decisions on the development of the main spheres of life in Russian society.” In addition, fundamental research should be closely related to the priorities of the scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation “taking into account external conditions.”

Gennady Krasnikov is called in the academy the exact opposite of Alexander Sergeyev. If the latter was focused on fundamental science, then Mr. Krasnikov is described as a person who is confident that the academy should “work more in such sectors that are of priority importance for the development of industry at the present time.”

Earlier, one of the scientists told Kommersant that Gennady Krasnikov is less famous in academic circles and his scientometric indicators are lower – “but at the same time he has great organizational experience and he is a member of many government bodies, which Sergeyev did not have before.”

Academician Vadim Brazhkin, director of the Institute for High Pressure Physics, called the election results predictable: “In his speech, Krasnikov said that he wanted to work with other candidates – Nigmatulin and Markovich. So with a high probability one of them will be taken to the presidium. Most academics liked that he planned to use not only their ideas, but also themselves. According to Mr. Brazhkin, now the Russian Academy of Sciences will shift more towards applied research, “since Krasnikov is an expert in this”: “Perhaps, we are talking about large national projects where the academy will take a significant part.”

Irina Donnik, vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, points out that there was a high turnout for the elections, which no one expected. “He won with a large number of votes, which means that the members of the academy had confidence in him,” says Ms. Donnik. “Anything could happen, and some thought that he would pass by a small margin.” In her opinion, the new team will give the academy a “development impetus” and now there will be a “new stage”. She believes that now there will be a “short arm” between fundamental and applied research: “Maybe we should make a roll in the applied area, because we need to acquire import independence. Not once at the meetings and in all the programs of candidates did it sound that fundamental research would be closed. I think these fears are false. On the contrary, there will be a greater connection between life and what scientists do.”

Several Kommersant’s interlocutors in the Russian Academy of Sciences call Gennady Krasnikov “Mikhail Kovalchuk’s man” – Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, President of the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” and brother of the shareholder of Rossiya Bank Yuri Kovalchuk. Some academicians consider Kurchatnik a competitor of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Gennady Krasnikov himself denies being close to Mr. Kovalchuk and calls such statements a “PR stunt” of his opponents. At the same time, Mr. Krasnikov works together with Mikhail Kovalchuk in the Department of Nanotechnology and Information Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Some academicians express fears that now “the process launched in 2013 will develop faster.” We are talking about the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences, when the scientific institutes previously managed by the academy itself were transferred to the subordination of the state.

At the same time, a number of research institutes went to the Kurchatov Institute (run by the government of the Russian Federation). A number of academicians expressed to Kommersant their fear that now scientists will not be able to prevent the transfer of Kurchatnik and other – the most powerful – institutions.

“Yes, formally these institutions are subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Science, but Sergeyev had good interaction with the ministry,” says one of Kommersant’s interlocutors. “But if they are removed from the ministry, then the Russian Academy of Sciences will lose all influence on them. And the institutions themselves will begin a completely different life, completely applied. In addition, there is a rather rigid vertical of power in Kurchatnik, which not all scientists are ready to obey. Difficult times are coming.” Gennady Krasnikov did not return calls; The National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” was unable to promptly respond to Kommersant’s request.

Anna Vasilyeva