The State Duma Committee on Science and High Technologies recommended that deputies reject in the first reading the bill on reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN), as evidenced by the official conclusion of the committee posted on Tuesday on the State Duma website.

“To recommend that the State Duma reject this bill when considering it in the first reading,” says the decision of the relevant committee.

The Committee considers reforming the institution of state academies of sciences to be an extremely important and necessary task. But she states that her decision is unacceptable without the participation of the scientific community. “Exceptionally controversial” the committee calls the creation of the “Russian Academy of Sciences” based on the liquidation of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, as well as the resubordination of the management apparatus of the “Russian Academy of Sciences” to federal authorities, which, along with other innovations, are an integral part of the conceptual framework bill.

The speakers on the bill at the State Duma meeting will be Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Olga Golodets and the Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov, and the chairman of the committee Valery Chereshnev will be the co-rapporteur.

At the end of June, the Russian government considered a bill on the mechanism and procedure for the reorganization of state academies of sciences. Introducing it, Prime Minister Medvedev said that Russia has six state academies of sciences, including the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to him, these academies “certainly make a huge contribution to the development of domestic science.” But “the management system of these structures was formed back in the 30-40s of the last century, it was formed under the influence of subjective factors and, of course, no longer fully corresponds to the modern tasks of the country’s development.” “This system has long been in need of updating,” Medvedev stated.

In the past. Friday, the government submitted a bill on reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences to the State Duma . It provides for the creation of a public-state organization “Russian Academy of Sciences” instead of the existing RAS. The existing Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences will be liquidated. The Russian Academy of Education, the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences and the Russian Academy of Arts will be transferred to the jurisdiction of the relevant federal bodies.

At a meeting on Monday, the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences criticized the government's planned reform of the academy, calling for these plans to be abandoned. The academicians adopted a resolution in which they stated that as a result of the proposed reform, “an amorphous and unclearly managed organization will be created” and the “principle of unity of management of fundamental science” will be destroyed.

On Tuesday, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction in the State Duma announced plans to raise in the State Duma the issue of no confidence in the Medvedev government in connection with the bill on reforming the Russian Academy of Sciences proposed by the Cabinet of Ministers.

The profile committee of the State Duma recommended that deputies reject the RAS reform