Affirmative proposal

The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill on the new rules for the election of the leadership of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Interfax reports . It is proposed to elect the presidium, president, vice presidents, chief scientist secretary of the Presidium and Academicians-secretaries not two-thirds of votes as now, but by a simple majority.

In addition, the procedure for coordinating candidates for the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the government is introduced. The President of the Russian Academy of Sciences elected by the General Assembly will be approved not by the government, but by the President of Russia. He will have the right to remove the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences from office.

The proposals of the academic environment, which formed the basis of the bill, contain the norms according to which regional departments and groups of academicians can nominate candidates for leaderships of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

I.O. President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Kozlov previously stated that the Academy asks the State Duma to make such amendments to the law on science, "so that the elections are passed without unnecessary difficulties and problems." According to Kozlov, the changes in the election procedure of academics on May 30 reported to Vladimir Putin at a meeting in the Kremlin. "Vladimir Vladimirovich supported this proposal so that the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences elected by the general meeting was approved by the president," the academician said.

On March 20, at the general meeting of the Academy, the appointed elections of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences did not take place. All three applicants removed their candidates from the elections . This post was claimed by the current head of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Fortov, chairman of the Council of the Russian Fund for Fundamental Research Vladislav Panchenko and director of the Institute of Molecular Biology named after Engelhardt Alexander Makarov. Fortov proposed to postpone the autumn elections due to questions to the election procedure in the RAS Charter, so as not to question the legitimacy of the head of the Academy and the Presidium.

The general meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences agreed with this proposal and decided to ask the government to extend the powers of Fortov and the current presidium. At the same time, the current president himself was against it. Fortov explained that he wanted to avoid conflict of interests in the autumn elections. However, the academics insisted that he remain at the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the next six months.

On March 22, it became known that Fortov undergoes a planned examination in the Central Clinical Hospital . Before hospitalization, he signed an order to appoint Kozlov acting President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Director of the Mathematical Institute named after V.A.Steklov RAS, head of the Department of differential equations of the Mehmat MSU MSU Kozlov was elected academician in 2000. Since 2001, he served as vice president of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2015, Kozlov headed the commission of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences to improve the structure of scientific organizations under the jurisdiction of the Federal Agency of Scientific Organizations.

The next day, the government approved Fortov’s resignation and the appointment of Kozlov to the acting president.