Russian geologists were offered to betray their homeland

The celebration of Geologist’s Day (it was celebrated on April 7) turned out to be unconventional for a number of Russian scientists from this field. It was marked by their refusal to go to the International Geological Congress (IGC) in South Korea under a neutral flag. This is “discrimination and racism in science,” the researchers unanimously commented, who did not even think about agreeing with the humiliating conditions.

The organizers sent an invitation back in February, six months before the event, which was to take place in August of this year… Our specialists sent abstracts of their speeches and on April 5 received an unpleasant surprise from South Korea in response – a requirement for participants: to remove Russian affiliation. Expressing gratitude for the abstracts provided, the organizers “convincingly asked” to change their Russian affiliation to that of another country by April 7, 2024. I wonder, even if someone accepted such conditions, would they have time to change their scientific citizenship in such a short time?!

Russian scientists are often invited to give lectures at such congresses, since geology is our strong point, one of the most advanced scientific schools in the field of geology is ours. I think the proof of this lies on the surface: if in any other country one type of geological structure predominates – either mountains, or plains, or the ocean surface, then we, you know, have all the structures that exist on Earth, and, moreover, not in the only form! And there was not a single International Geological Congress that would take place without our scientists. They were invited immediately by a delegation that included 30-40 or more people.

In the 50s of the last century, on the basis of Russian science, which was then headed by major Russian geologists: Nikolai Shatsky, Viktor Khain, Vladimir Belosusov, Alexey Bogdanov, the first Geological map of Europe, Tectonic map of the world, Tectonic map of Eurasia, which, by the way, was created , was not limited to the territory of the USSR, but included all the countries of Europe and Asia.

Today, one of the leading representatives of geological science, a world-class specialist, is the chief researcher of the Geochemical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Felix Kaminsky, whom they also did not hesitate to confront with an unpleasant fact.

“I sent a letter to the organizing committee of the congress,” he told me, “with the following content: “Your actions are aimed at completely dividing the international and scientific communities. I don’t understand or accept this. Personally, I find this proposal offensive. I can no longer maintain communication with you until I receive an apology from the organizing committee.”

Kaminsky, by the way, is not the first time he has encountered such an offensive proposal. He told how a year ago he was banned from conducting experiments at the synchrotron in Grenoble, France, in the creation of which Russia invested 14% of the funds and continues to finance it annually.

“And in 2022, our mineralogists were denied participation with the Russian flag at the International Congress in Lyon. None of the scientists, who were usually in second place in the number of visitors to this event, went to France then,” the General Director of the Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician Sergei Krivovichev told me. By the way, he is still the editor of the European Mineralogical Journal and recently personally put an end to the Russophobic behavior of one of the editors. In the database, where all the reviewers of the articles were listed, opposite the Russian names there was a postscript in English: “The Russian Federation is a terrorist state.” Sergei Vladimirovich immediately drew the attention of the publication’s management to this fact and became indignant with the words: “Is this the official position of the magazine?” After this, the managers apologized, referring to some negligent employee, and immediately removed the offensive note. By the way, this year, according to Sergei Krivovichev, one of the employees of the Kola Science Center, Yuri Neradovsky, finally “passed” to the International Geological Congress. Only bad luck – this “soul” turned out to be dead for a year already, there was a mistake.

Among those still alive, like Kaminsky, crystallographer chemist Artem Oganov also refused to give a report at the congress. “You cannot allow yourself to be humiliated,” he wrote on his social network. “Science cannot be turned into a tool of discrimination.”

And if only the hosts of the event, Koreans, would excel in geological disciplines. The scientists I spoke with could not name me a single prominent specialist from South Korea. By the way, they did not fail to hint in their message to our researchers that the “execution” they resorted to was not their initiative, but a certain circular developed at the office of the International Union of Geological Sciences.

Perhaps, with such instructions, curators from abroad are trying to arouse dissatisfaction with the Russian government among Russian scientists. Well, they miscalculated – the effect, apparently, is the opposite.