"The current leadership of the SB RAS leaves Akademgorodok with a destroyed outskirts"

Why is there a struggle in the election of the chairman of the SB RAS? Why did it come to the “conspiracies” and incriminating evidence? In what condition does the current leadership leave the department, and why does Akadgorodok envy Koltsovo and Novosibirsk? The academicians Valentin Vlasov and Nikolai Kolchanov told about this in an interview with Taiga.info.

Taiga.info: In the Russian Academy of Sciences and her Siberian department, unexpectedly for third -party observers who do not closely follow the academic community, violent events began. First, the election of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences was canceled. And then, after the rating vote on candidates for the chairmen of the Presidium of the SB RAS, a statement was made by the current head of the department of Academician Aseev that on the presidium. It turns out that a conspiracy was drawn up. And as you can understand from his words - this is a conspiracy against the current leadership of the SB RAS in favor of Fano. Since the current leadership of the Department consistently opposes the reform of the Academy of Sciences. And this conspiracy was drawn up by members of the Research Council under Fano, including you.

Vlasov: We are discussing the elections. And each candidate has a certain support group. Therefore, the word "conspiracy" in this situation is not applicable at all. To begin with, the elections of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the chairman of the SB RAS in the spring of 2017 did not take place, although there were very worthy candidates.

Taiga.info: In those elections, Academician Alekseenko was recommended by the Presidium of the SB RAS?

Vlasov: Indeed, there were several candidates, including academician Sergey Vladimirovich Alekseenko. Why did the elections fall? Perhaps because since the beginning of the reform of academic science in 2013 in the scientific community (both in the Russian Academy of Sciences and at the Institutes of Fano), an intensive search for ways to get out of the crisis began. And it is natural that the views on this issue both in the academic community and among presidents of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the chairmen of the SB RAS were very different. Surprisingly, if it were different! There were many discussions. They wrote a lot about this. The situation is heated. In this situation, academician Vladimir Fortov, an outstanding scientist, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 2013, withdrew his candidacy. The rest of the candidates did the same. Therefore, the presidential election of the Russian Academy of Sciences did not take place. In this situation, the election of the chairman of the SB RAS did not take place. Personally, I hoped that Academician Alexander Makarov, director of the Institute of Molecular Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an outstanding scientist and excellent organizer, and the chairman of the SB RAS, Academician Pavel Logachev, director of the largest, the largest in the Russian Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, would be elected president of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Taiga.info: Let's talk about the current elections of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the chairman of the SB RAS.

Kolchanov: I’ll start with the fact that the elections in the Russian Academy of Sciences are the core of academic democracy at all levels (starting from junior researchers, including members of academic councils and ending with the directors of institutions). The more transparent the election procedure is, the more confidence in its results. In our opinion, the procedure for counting votes required clarification. A group of academicians, including me, turned to the chairman of the SB RAS Academician A. L. Aseev with a proposal to improve the regulations. He initially agreed, "let's make such an addition." Prepared the relevant documents. Quite unexpectedly, the chairman of the SB RAS refused to consider them and discuss with us. After that, we got into the group of “conspirators” - simply because we wanted to develop academic democracy.

Taiga.info: Was Academician Aseev agreed before?

Vlasov: Yes, he asked to prepare proposals. And we remember, there was a wording “Anti-Party Group and Shepilov, who joined them” (as in the Soviet press the second half of the 50s stigmatized Molotov, Malenkov, Bulganin and always added “and the Shepilov” -approx. Taiga.info).

Taiga.info: And how did you find yourself in the scientific-advisory council (NKS) at Fano?

Kolchanov: NKS was created for the operational coordination of the Academy of Sciences and the Federal Agency of Research. Why is the Chairman of the SB RAS annoyed by a group of employees of the Siberian branch that works as part of the NKS? She works on the principles of openness. At the same time, the Council working in Moscow includes academician Valery Kozlov, now the acting president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a large number of representatives of regional branches of the Russian Academy of Sciences and regional scientific centers.

Taiga.info: And who is part of the NKS from the SB RAS?

Vlasov: Academics Derevyanko, Sagdeev, Vlasov, Grachev, Dygai, Kolchanov, Kontorovich, Parmon, Pokhilenko, Shabanov, Shokin, Psakhier, Markovich, work there. And they work actively, a very solid representation from SB RAS. It is the NKS that is the operational mechanism for the implementation of the management of academic institutions by the Fano of Russia and the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences according to the principle of “two keys”, proposed by the resident of the Russian Academy of Sciences Academician Fortov at one of the meetings of the Council on Science and Education of the President. The question arises: does Academician Alexander Aseev consider everyone above “conspirators”?

Fano was created to ensure the functioning of academic institutions in an “emergency”, which arose as a result of the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Kolchanov: As for the words of Academician A. L. Aseev about the membership of a number of academicians in NKS - the structure that he calls the parallel wounds, whose members are engaged in “conspiratorial activities”, it must be understood that the fan is a structure created to ensure the functioning of academic institutions in an “emergency” that arose as a result of the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences. What happens - the state has created a structure for the management of academic institutions (Fano), and we should not work with it?

If we are in a storm on the ship, when there is a threat of his death (we are talking about the academic science of the Russian Federation), everyone should work as one team: those who are on the deck, at the helm and in the hold, each performing their duties. This is what the principle of “two keys”, the practical implementation of which at the level of academic democracy, is indicated on the NKS models (taking into account the fact that the problems discussed by representatives of the academic community find a solution at the level of coordination between the Russian Academy of Sciences and Fano).

Taiga.info: What are the most important tasks of the new composition of the Presidiums of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the SB RAS?

Vlasov: The most important task of the new composition of the Presidiums of the Russian Academy of Sciences and SB RAS is the formation of a strategy for the development of academic science. It should be borne in mind that the close cooperation of the Russian Academy of Sciences (as the most qualified scientific expert community of Russia) and Fano (as the community of academic institutions) is possible only by creating a new integrating structure of a hierarchically higher level, similar to the State Committee on Science and Technology of the times of the USSR or the new version of the Russian Ministry of Science, which unites the Russian Highlander as the Higher Expert body of the country and the Fon of Russia as the FANO of Russia as the FANO of Russia as A structure that ensures the functioning of academic institutions. The current policy of the leadership of the SB RAS in relation to regional centers leads to their gradual isolation. Therefore, the new leadership of the SB RAS RAS needs to do everything possible to use the fully powerful intellectual potential of scientific centers SB RAS.

Taiga.info: Why is there a struggle in this election?

Kolchanov: For the development paths of academic science. For its preservation and development in the new socio-economic and political conditions, which put strict challenges to us and on the answer to which not only the fate of science, but also the country can depend. The answer to the questions is complicated, and even more so important to look for ways to solve them, relying on the enormous potential of the academic community, represented by both researchers working in the Fano Institutes and members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This search requires thoughtful, painstaking work, the opportunity to offer and listen to any qualified opinion, provided that our temporary resources are extremely limited. Such a search is absolutely incompatible with the rejection of alternative views and a priori solutions about what is good and what is bad.

The Academy of Sciences, as it were, froze, disconnected from the environment, plunged into a state of "altered consciousness"

Taiga.info: How do you assess the current state of the wounds?

Vlasov: The hardest blow to the Russian Academy of Sciences was inflicted in 2013 in connection with the alienation of academic institutions from it and their transfer to Fano Russia. The usual mechanisms of the functioning of the Russian Academy of Sciences were destroyed over decades. In fact, the Russian Academy of Sciences was deprived of its effectively and creatively working executive bodies (institutions), through which plans for fundamental scientific and search research formed by RAS were implemented. At the same time, the accession to the wounds of the two Academies of the applied profile (RAMS and RAMS) has blurred the previous concept of the Russian Academy of Sciences, based on the concentration of its efforts, first of all, on the conduct of fundamental and oriented fundamental research.

As a result, in the mental and psychological plans, both the leadership of the United Russian Academy of Sciences and most of its members have not yet moved away from shock therapy that hit them. The Russian Academy, as it were, froze, disconnected from the environment, plunged into a state of “changed consciousness”, which is characterized by the loss of the instinct of self -preservation - the most important properties of any living system. It is necessary to get out of this state as quickly as possible, including because a powerful psychological blow was inflicted on institutes. And in this sense, building relations between wounds and fano has a most important meaning.

Kolchanov: Back in April 2017, the initiative group Academician Aseev was proposed to create a special working group for the formation of development strategies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and SB RAS, which was supposed to be offered to the scientific community at the General Assembly of the Russian Academy of Sciences in September. Unfortunately, this did not happen. And in the understanding of the future SB RAS is in the same place as five months ago. Time was spent on clarifying relations and accusing opponents.

Vlasov: Now regarding the publication of academician Aseev. Alexander Leonidovich in his speeches (in this article and at the meetings of the Presidium) acts as a successful, large leader, as a judge who can give grades, recommendations, and so on. In fact, our Siberian branch has never been in such a difficult situation as it is now. We have destroyed many democratic principles that have always been. For example, we have not been going to the Bureau of the Presidium of the Department for a year. In some mysterious way, in general, the mention of the bureau disappeared from the Charter of the SB RAS. We recently learned about this with surprise.

Taiga.info: Aseev says in his article that you need to adhere to the charter and law.

Vlasov: Yes. And the mention of the bureau disappeared from the charter.

Taiga.info: How did it happen?

Vlasov: I was part of the bureau, the last time we gathered about a year ago, where the members of the bureau, let’s say, criticized the chairman well. The bureau was not going to. And now we ask - why is the Bureau not going? And they answer us - it is not provided for by the charter. How did it disappear from the charter?

The leadership of the SB RAS did not find normal ways to interact with the region and with the city

Kolchanov: The liquidation of the Bureau of the Presidium, in fact, made the chairman uncontrolled - he, his deputies and the apparatus remained. I’ll tell you as a biologist - it’s the same as leaving the brain, to leave the body that it controls, but to remove all the nerves that connect the brain and body.

Vlasov: Look at the condition of our academicgorod. This is a complete disgrace! In Novosibirsk - beautiful new areas. If you go to Koltsovo - there is generally a European city! And here you see - the destroyed outskirts. And the issues of creating a modern environment of living, worthy of the population of Akademgorodok, are not at all considered by the leadership of the SB RAS.

Taiga.info: Is it under the SB RAS?

Vlasov: The leadership of the SB RAS did not find normal ways to interact with the region and the city. There is no other answer. Other people found. Look at the village of Koltsovo, at his mayor Krasnikov. Everything is just fine there. Heaven and earth are like two different countries. We have “zero” here, only conversations.

Taiga.info: What do you say about the reproaches of the chairman of the SB RAS to candidates for the post of chairman of the SB RAS?

Vlasov: The article by Academician Aseev , unfortunately, is allowed to distort the position of his opponents. In order to compromise one of the candidates - Academician Valentina Parmon, he writes: “Parmon proposes to implement on the basis of the SB RAS a new science management model to create an integrated scientific center of federal significance on the basis of a scientific center.” And then in all the conversations, Aseev interprets this proposal so that Parmon is going to combine all institutions into one organization, while the institutes will lose a legal entity with all the ensuing consequences. Academician Parmon does not mean anything like this. He speaks of the Center for Science, Education and Innovation of Federal Issues on the Institutes of the SB RAS, Novosibirsk State University and Innovation Development Centers, which President Vladimir Putin proposed to create several years ago during one of his visits to Novosibirsk.

Taiga.info: Please explain how the election of the chairman of the SB RAS will take place further? Can the Presidium recommend that only one candidate put forward?

Kolchanov: No. At the last meeting of the Presidium of the SB RAS was not a nomination, but the rating of four nominated candidates: Academicians Alekseenko, Parmon, Vernikovsky, Bychkov. Through the “soft” vote, “for” the Presidium of the SB RAS formed his collective opinion about the nominated candidates. Now the first position in the ranking is occupied by Parmon. However, what do we see now in all publications? Academician Aseev speaks only of other candidates, and Parmon either does not mention or writes: "The chairman of the SB RAS does not support the Parmon program." Nevertheless, the decision remains with the members of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. At a general meeting in Moscow, they will choose from all submitted candidates.

Talked by Alexei Mazur