Putin expelled four scientists from the scientific council under the Russian Security Council who opposed the war with Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expelled four experts from the scientific council under the Russian Security Council. This follows from the presidential decree of March 28.

Excluded from the council:

• Alexey Gromyko, Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
• Alexander Nikitin, Director of the Center for Euro-Atlantic Security, MGIMO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation;
• Alexander Panov, Chief Researcher, Institute for the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
• Sergey Rogov, Scientific Director of the Institute for the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The reasons for their exclusion from the council are not specified in the decree. The staff of the Security Council told Kommersant that it was a question of "updating" the scientific council, whose members rotate periodically. The presidential decree does not say who they were replaced with.

In early March, all four of these scientists, together with colleagues from the United States and European countries, signed a statement in which they "expressed extreme concern about the largest crisis on the European continent since the Second World War." The authors of the appeal called on the parties to the conflict to cease fire, establish cooperation on humanitarian issues, refrain from nuclear rhetoric, and agree on additional measures to prevent military incidents between the United States and NATO on the one hand and Russia on the other.

Alexei Gromyko told RTVI that he did not know why he and other experts were expelled from the Security Council council, and suggested that the authorities did not listen to their recommendations. “The statement made a lot of sense in those days from the point of view of the national interests of our country,” he said.