Recently, the Russian Ministry of Education and Science demanded that RAS institutes compile lists of names of participants in international events in order to “formulate a plan for participation” in such events.
The data is collected by the Department of International Cooperation of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science “in order to formulate a plan for participation in international congress and exhibition events in Russia and foreign countries in 2024 and to prepare reference materials.”
Employees of RAS institutes must provide “detailed information” about participants in international events from both the Russian and foreign sides. In particular, it is required to indicate the full official name of the event, the “contingent of event participants,” a list of countries from which the participants came, and their number. In addition, a list of names of both institute employees who participated in the event and representatives of foreign countries is required.
The Ministry of Education and Science demanded that RAS institutes compile lists of names of participants in international events in order to “formulate a plan for participation” in such events. Similar reporting was required in 2019, but this procedure was canceled
The institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), at the request of the Ministry of Education and Science, began collecting a list of names of participants in all international scientific events for 2023, both from the Russian and foreign sides, Vedomosti found out .
The data is collected by the department’s department of international cooperation “in order to formulate a plan for participation in international congress and exhibition events in Russia and foreign countries in 2024 and prepare reference materials,” newspaper sources familiar with the order said.
Employees of RAS institutes must provide “detailed information” about participants in international events from both the Russian and foreign sides. In particular, it is required to indicate the full official name of the event, the “contingent of event participants,” a list of countries from which the participants came, and their number. In addition, a list of names of both institute employees who participated in the event and representatives of foreign countries is required.
An employee of one of the institutes of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences explained to Vedomosti that for many years the Russian Academy of Sciences had the practice of annual reports to the Ministry of Education and Science on the work of scientists, to which conference programs were also attached. “The programs are preliminary, i.e. It happens that someone applied for them and he did not show up. The institutes have never written such reports by name before: which specific people went where and how many foreigners were there,” added the newspaper’s interlocutor.
As Anastasia Zykova, managing partner of Key Consulting Group, noted, today there are no publicly available legal acts that would assign scientific organizations the obligation to report on the organization of international events or participation in them. She recalled that similar initiatives were discussed in 2019–2020, but in the end the order was cancelled.
The Kremlin considered the tightening of rules for communication between scientists and foreigners to be too much
Society
In mid-August 2019, it became known that the Ministry of Education and Science had approved the procedure for holding meetings of its employees and employees of organizations under its jurisdiction with foreigners. Thus, a meeting outside the workplace could only be held with the permission of the authorities, and after it the scientist had to give a report. Visits of foreigners to scientific organizations were to be organized only in “specially designed and equipped” premises. At the same time, foreigners were prohibited from using any recording devices, including telephones, at the meeting.
The Ministry of Education and Science subsequently stated that the order was issued not to control scientists, but “to take into account indicators of the growth of international relations.” The department then also called such measures “global practice.” Nevertheless, academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences opposed the initiative. Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Khokhlov noted that such restrictions can only be imposed on those specialists who work with state secrets.
Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov then also considered the decision of the Ministry of Education and Science to tighten the rules for communication between scientists and foreigners to be too strict. According to him, it is necessary to show a certain vigilance, “because foreign intelligence services, of course, are not asleep,” but “this does not mean that we should chain ourselves to some, let’s say, rules that will not lead to anything good.” ” As a result, the order was canceled six months later.
