Sergeev explained why he was withdrawing his candidacy from the election of the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences

“The events of recent days made me do it”

The President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev announced to the members of the Academy who gathered at the General Meeting that he was withdrawing his candidacy from the elections – MK sources told about such a possibility yesterday.

– The events of recent days forced me to withdraw my candidacy from the elections. I do not call on my colleagues who supported me to cast their votes for any of the remaining candidates,” Sergeev said. – This election campaign is taking place in these conditions. Many members of the Russian Academy of Sciences are even subjected to external administrative pressure, especially after publicly declaring their position. This has never happened in the recent history of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Under these conditions, I thank the members of the Russian Academy of Sciences who support me, but the events of recent days are forcing me to withdraw my candidacy from the elections. This is a forced decision. I do not call on my colleagues who support me to vote (for other candidates – “MK”). I urge everyone to make a decision in accordance with our academic traditions and values.

Prior to this speech, Alexander Mikhailovich had to answer many uncomfortable questions. They rained down from members of the Academy immediately after the speech of the Acting Chief Scientific Secretary of the Academy Dmitry Bisikalo on the results of the activities of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences for 2017-2022.

In particular, academician Yevgeny Kablov asked the president of the Academy why he did not properly answer the speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, when he reproached the academicians for “doing nothing” at one of the parliamentary meetings.

– He reproached us that we only want to have life-long scholarships and a free funeral service, – the academician was indignant. – It was said about 2008 members of the Russian Academy of Sciences! For the whole country. Why didn’t you come out and answer, because the Academy has a lot of results?

Yevgeny Kablov explained that everyone knows about the letter that Alexander Sergeev sent to the speaker of the State Duma after the scandalous accusation, which reflected all the results of the activities of the Russian Academy of Sciences. But I wanted to know what he answered, was there a proper dialogue with Vyacheslav Volodin?

Alexander Mikhailovich recalled that after a letter from the State Duma, a proposal came to report on the work at a meeting of the Committee on Science and Education. This was done, Sergeev made a big report at this meeting. “It was widely covered, including in the press,” he replied, without mentioning, however, whether there was any feedback from Volodin after that.

The following speakers raised other issues that were either not reflected in Bisikalo’s report or were not given due attention.

Thus, Academician Aleksey Semenov was dissatisfied with the fact that the Academy had almost let out of its sight the most important work on the examination of school textbooks and school standards; serious underfunding of science, which at times (!) lags behind the funding of Western countries. Academician Sergei Stishov reminded the president of the loss of the RFBR – the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

Despite the disagreement of the Academy, this body, which had supported scientific research for many years, was nevertheless destroyed at the initiative of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.