Minister and bees

Dear editors!

Despite the rapid approximation of summer, the shining sun and everything else, good and positive, restless on the administrative-scientific sky. Articles began to appear on the theme of IS Mr. Kotyukov? , in which our minister appears as an accountant-a-lender who almost deliberately destroying science by imposing the normally and meaningless publication standards. Deceives the leadership of the country, forcing to submit inflated data on the salaries of scientists to Rosstat.

If you believe the authors of articles, Mikhail Mikhailovich does not disdain and targeted blows, destroying specific research centers and other organizations. Over the years of the leadership of Fano, he allegedly ruined the unique bee center - the Krasnopolyansky nursery - brought to the handle of fur farming, finally finishes the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in which thousands of unique documents are stored: there is no director, the team does not receive a salary for several months. What can I say: the academic university created by Zhores Ivanovich Alferov is in a bad position - a person who has no real managerial experience has been put at the helm of a unique organization, many employees do not receive a salary for several months.

In general, to the reader it is time to grab his head, exclaiming: what is it, stupidity or wrecking?! Moreover, not only journalists speak about the situation in science disapproving: the head of the relevant Duma committee also said recently that we are very far behind the leading countries to finance science and will not be able to reach their level if nothing changes here. He also posed to problems with the legislation and assessment of scientific activity.

What all this means, my colleagues guess. Is the change in the profile minister coming? I cannot give a clear answer: Dmitry Anatolyevich and Vladimir Vladimirovich should give an assessment of the actions of ministers. If Mikhail Mikhailovich was mistaken or even worse, then they will tell us about it at one time. Remember how it was with Anatoly Eduardovich Serdyukov? They removed from the post, carefully figured it out, and in the end they set to lead the "United Aircraft Corporation." So do not hesitate, colleagues, and Mikhail Mikhailovich, if anything, gets deserved.

However, I have serious doubts that it will come to the resignation of the minister. I think that critical articles are the machinations of dissatisfied representatives of the academic environment. Someone was wiped from the feeding trough, someone was not given money, someone, finally, simply did not show sufficient respect. I see that the leadership is previously Fano, and now the Ministry of Science and Higher Education is trying to introduce simple and understandable algorithms for the distribution of funds. From the series "both stomped and burst."

Yes, of course, these algorithms are not perfect. Yes, not always the success of scientific activity can be correctly evaluated only by the number of publications. I can not exclude that in some cases the decisions made lead to sad consequences. But, my friends, such is life - losses, including difficult, inevitable. Farm and friends, friends and colleagues, are leaving, unique historical monuments suffer from different disasters. Even such as the Cathedral of the Parisian Mother of God. It's a pity, but what can you do.

Tell me, colleagues, would it be better for us if, in the distribution of money on institutions, we relied only on the opinions of academic experts and directors? There is no doubt that in this case where they don’t spit, all the research and development we would have the highest world level. And so we look at the number of publications, their level, at the share of young scientists - and voila!

Yes, and with specific examples of "atrocities" ... we will take the same bees. It is alleged that it is ridiculous with one hand to invest tens of billions of rubles in the development of seed production, and with the other to kill beekeeping, eliminate pipe beekeepers. But is it possible to trust the statements of journalists that the situation in beekeeping is deteriorating? Or maybe the injured bees are wrong, and they make the wrong honey?

Do the bees need our minister? This is a philosophical issue. In times, prehistoric bees, like other insects, as well as representatives of the genus Homo sapiens , perfectly did without ministers at all. But those days have gone forever. Nowadays, without ministers and presidents, there is a permanent leadership everywhere. And you know, a minister is better without bees than bees without a minister.

Your Ivan Ekonomov