The Ministry of Defense did not demobilize scientists – Newspaper Kommersant No. 222 (7423) of 11/30/2022

The Ministry of Defense did not support the bill on deferment from mobilization for candidates and doctors of sciences. Such an initiative was proposed by the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education, but the military department considered it “inappropriate” in the context of “guaranteed support for the mobilization deployment of the RF Armed Forces.” The head of the committee, Sergei Kabyshev, admits that with the negative position of the Ministry of Defense, the government’s response will be the same. But next week, the committee will still discuss what to do with the bill next.

As previously reported by Kommersant, the deputies proposed to exempt candidates and doctors of sciences who work in universities or research institutes from mobilization (see “Kommersant” dated October 27). However, the Ministry of Defense gave a negative review of the bill, Ksenia Goryacheva, deputy chairman of the committee, told Kommersant. “Of course, we would like to immediately include all doctors and candidates in it, not to divide into categories,” she admits. “But we decided to move gradually – it seemed that in this case the probability of acceptance was greater. But, as we can see, even such a docked version has not yet been accepted by the Ministry of Defense.

According to Ms. Goryacheva, the department considered that expanding the presidential decree on the postponement “is inappropriate in order to guarantee the mobilization deployment of the RF Armed Forces.”

No additional explanations were given there, the deputy says.

Recall, partial mobilization was announced by President Putin on 21 September. A few days later, he signed a deferment decree for full-time and part-time students; later, students of non-state universities and graduate students received a similar deferment. Since the end of September, many officials and social activists have come up with initiatives to provide “reservation” for other categories of citizens associated with education. Thus, the Ministry of Education sent a petition to the government for a deferment for school teachers (see “Kommersant” dated October 16), but has not yet received a response. The trade union “University Solidarity” came up with the initiative to give a deferral for university teachers. Members of the academic “July 1st Club” pushed for a reprieve for PhDs and PhDs; a similar proposal was made by the recently elected President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Gennady Krasnikov. On October 31, Vladimir Putin announced the end of mobilization.

There are not so many cases of mobilization of scientists – several dozen, says Ksenia Goryacheva. “But it’s often not so easy to “recapture” a person from the military registration and enlistment office: the “booking” tool does not work everywhere, and there are no other tools for protection right now,” the deputy explains. “That is why legislative support is needed. This will give people peace of mind, and then they will be able to work in full force for the development of the country, and not worry that tomorrow they may find themselves in a trench.” The head of the committee, Sergei Kabyshev, believes that with the negative position of the Ministry of Defense, the response of the Russian government will be the same. However, according to him, next week the committee will meet and discuss what to do with the bill next.

Kommersant sent a request to the Ministry of Defense, but did not receive a response. The Ministry of Education and Science repeated to Kommersant its position that it had previously expressed: universities and scientific organizations “work out, in working order, with military registration and enlistment offices issues on granting a deferment from mobilization for their employees.” “The regulatory documents on the procedure for issuing a deferment from conscription for military service for mobilization are marked “for official use.” Therefore, they cannot be presented in open sources,” Kommersant was told in the department. “These documents are enough to “book” the vast majority of their employees, including the teaching staff.”

Pavel Kudyukin, co-chairman of the independent trade union Universitetskaya Solidarity, calls the Defense Ministry’s negative review “disgraceful”.

In his opinion, a deferment from mobilization should be given not only to holders of academic degrees, but to all teachers without exception: “There are few men in schools, if they are mobilized, then they will not remain at all. In universities, this will lead to a sharp drop in the quality of education. And it is illogical that the students were given a reprieve, but those who teach them were not.” However, according to Mr. Kudyukin, many universities managed to “knock out” reservations for their teachers, as well as a lot of “armor” from some research institutes associated with the defense industry.

Anna Vasilyeva