Academician Vladimir Fortov has been confirmed as President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The corresponding decree was signed by President Vladimir Putin. It came into force from the moment of signing.

The head of the Joint Institute for High Temperatures, Fortov, was elected president of the Russian Academy of Sciences at the end of May 2012. He received 58% of the votes in the first round; his main rival was Nobel laureate Zhores Alferov. Immediately after the results of the vote were announced, Fortov stated that the Russian Academy of Sciences was focused on change, would become a generator of new ideas and projects, would begin to fight internal bureaucracy, and was ready for dialogue with the head of the Ministry of Education, Dmitry Livanov.

Even before Fortov's approval, at the end of June, the government announced a reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences, proposing to merge it with the Medical Academy and the Agricultural Academy and transfer their property to the management of a specially created state structure. According to Fortov, this bill was unexpected for academicians, the Russian Academy of Sciences asked the authorities to postpone the reform and discuss it with the scientific community. However, President Vladimir Putin, during a personal meeting, informed the academician that the bill had already been submitted to the Duma and it was impossible to return it to the government. He proposed that Fortov head not only the Russian Academy of Sciences, but also the agency for managing the academy's property - for a certain transitional period.

After the first reading of the reform bill, numerous amendments were prepared for the second reading within 24 hours. In particular, it was decided to merge the academies without liquidating them, maintaining continuity, all institutes were decided to be left under the management of the RAS, and the appointment of institute directors was left under the control of the RAS Presidium. In an interview with Dozhd, Fortov called the updated amendments "reasonable and correct" and promised that there would be no protests against the reform. After the second reading of the bill, he confirmed that he agreed to combine the posts of president of the RAS and head of the agency that will manage the property of the academy.

Putin approved Fortov as President of the Russian Academy of Sciences