Translated material
Don't hide behind other people's backs!
On May 20, a press conference “RAS on the way to 2020” was held, in which Vice-President of the RAS Alexander Nekipelov and Chief Scientific Secretary of the RAS Valery Kostyuk 1 took part . The press conference itself was on par with the recent press conference of President Medvedev - practically nothing new, important or interesting. But one thesis expressed, in my opinion, deserves discussion, since it is not the first time it has been voiced. Alexander Nekipelov said the following there:
“We are very concerned that a lot of work has actually been done to discredit scientific activity, scientists, the Academy of Sciences, in particular, in the eyes of society... In our country today, apart from academic science, with rare exceptions, there is almost no other science. You can, of course, mock her, talk about what’s bad there, what’s wrong, and, by the way, mention the right things. But all this can end very badly - there will be no serious science left in the country at all.”
I don’t know who in our country is deliberately engaged in discrediting scientific activity as such or scientists simply because they are scientists. I don’t know people who seriously believe that science is bad, that the country doesn’t need it. Maybe such pests are crazy and there is, but something tells me that Alexander Dmitrievich did not mean them when he spoke about discrediting. Yes, there is actually a lot of criticism, including a lot of it on the pages of the “Trinity Option”, only this criticism is not related to science as such and not even to the Academy of Sciences as a whole, but to specific officials and specific events. Let’s face it, the leadership of the Russian Academy of Sciences is quite successfully discrediting the Academy of Sciences. For example, Vice President Sergei Aldoshin, who first sings the praises of Viktor Petrik, and then, like a guilty schoolboy, makes an excuse that he was “joking”2. Or Vice-President Nekipelov, who proves with all his might that equipment at prices that are inflated almost several times over is not purchased through affiliated intermediaries at the Academy of Sciences3. Or the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yuri Osipov, who became president, despite his firm belief, in his words, about the need for an age limit for leaders in the Russian Academy of Sciences4, and also asserting in all seriousness that foreign scientists will learn Russian in order to read Russian scientific journals5. But the interesting thing is that if someone says something not very happy about this, then this - following the logic of the academic authorities - already turns out to be criticism of the entire Academy, of all science.
Alexander Dmitrievich, have the courage not to hide behind the backs of ordinary Academy employees. The leadership of the RAS is not the whole Academy, and one should not equate oneself with the whole of Russian science. At almost all public appearances, you pronounce a mantra like a mantra: “Yes, the Academy is not free from shortcomings.” Stop admitting this in words, try to do at least something to correct these shortcomings! Not all problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences are related to financing; a lot can be done without additional money. It is in your power to create in society the image of the Academy as a democratic public institution, the basis of which is independent expertise and transparency of management procedures. If you are so concerned about society’s attitude towards the Academy, why don’t you do anything about it yourself? Maybe I can tell you where to start?
Alexey Krushelnitsky
1 www.rian.ru/pressclub/20110520/376354157.html
2 http://trv-science.ru/2009/12/08/petrik-nadelal-kuchu-pered-akademikami/
3 http://trv-science.ru/2010/12/07/pilite-shura-pilite/
www.ras.ru/news/shownews.aspx?id=7a8bc0ee-c458-40a8-9984-c07e42642383