A remarkable and still rare sight will be on display tomorrow morning outside the State Duma. Real, genuine academicians—the pride of Soviet and Russian science—will come out for an unauthorized protest, and OMON riot police will be grabbing them and dragging them into police vans. Presumably with the words, "your physics, you bastard, was already driving me crazy back in school". As usual, the issue comes down to lies and deception. You may remember that the rushed passage of the bill on reforming the Russian Academy of Sciences caused an indescribable scandal.
Alarmed, United Russia announced that it was postponing the already scheduled second reading. And on September 4, Putin said that he had agreed to the amendments proposed by RAS President Fortov. As many had predicted (it wasn’t exactly rocket science), all of this was done solely to get scientists to stop protesting and expressing outrage on the eve of the Moscow mayoral election. That was the usual, predictable kind of “cunning.”
The elections are over, and last Friday the Duma received a version of the bill from the presidential administration that does not take the RAS presidium’s amendments into account (except for minor details, such as preserving the status of corresponding member). It is therefore hardly surprising that over the weekend a text pointedly titled “To Arms, Citizens!” spread rapidly among staff at Moscow’s scientific and educational institutions: The internal Academy mailing list that has been reaching me since Friday evening, as it has many of you, makes it necessary to state that: a) Putin’s government intends to rush through, on the 17th, the law on the so-called “Reform” of the Academy in its most destructive, original version—removing even the cosmetic amendments. b) All two months of negotiations between the Government and the Presidium were nothing but a smokescreen, and the guarantees Putin publicly gave Fortov on September 4 were pure lies and a scam aimed at gullible fools. c) The organizational structures of the academic community (“Conference of RAS Researchers,” etc.), as well as the trade unions, have been caught off guard and are mumbling incoherently—calling, for example, for people to sign yet more petitions (and we all know the value of such petitions). In light of this, I personally believe that: a) The possibilities for negotiations with the Government have, at this point, been exhausted (the Presidium may continue them if it wishes—that is its business). b) If we are not complete sheep, then we must IMMEDIATELY begin a Campaign of Civil Disobedience (NB: not to be confused with Mass Riots!) c) The first step in such a Campaign of Civil Disobedience is perfectly obvious: mass UNAUTHORIZED protests outside the State Duma on the 17th—modeled on those successfully held on 18 July by Navalny’s supporters. So what is being planned is a street demonstration by Russian scientists who are genuinely world-famous, authoritative, and serious. These are not bureaucrats wasting away over hoarded wealth and mansions on Leninsky Prospekt. These really are the “flower of Russian science” in the eyes of the world. Here is the letter being circulated through scientific communities; I was also asked to publish it: Colleagues, Tuesday, September 17, may prove to be a fateful day for science and for the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is possible that on that day the Duma will pass the bill in its harshest form. Yesterday a decision was made to hold “walks” in front of the Duma that day. A number of public organizations have made similar decisions. Other protest actions are to be planned by the RAS Trade Union on Monday, September 16, in the first half of the day. Please take part! As we understand it, the Duma’s plenary session on Tuesday begins at 10:00 a.m. We begin walking at 9:00 a.m. opposite the Duma, across Okhotny Ryad. We are not bringing placards; badges and T-shirts are welcome. We do not rule out the possibility that we may have to walk more than once. Vladimir Zakharov, (Academician Zakharov) Valery Rubakov, (Academician Rubakov) Alexander Kuleshov **(Academician Kuleshov) I added the Wikipedia links myself. Go and read them, so you can better grasp what this means: actual superstars of world science are organizing an unauthorized protest outside the Russian State Duma and writing to one another, “we’re not bringing placards; badges and T-shirts are welcome.” * My position on RAS reform finally took shape after the meeting with scientists that we held during the election campaign. It is set out in detail here. To all this I can add only one thing. But an important one. Something that, so to speak, completes the epic picture of “State Duma deputies teaching RAS academicians how they should do science.” * The Society of Scientific Workers (ONR), today the most influential association of active Russian scientists living both in Russia and abroad, appealed to Dissernet with a request to provide assessments of the soundness of the “scientific legacy” of State Duma deputies who actively and loudly support the “reform” of the RAS. The Dissernet community provided its expert reviews to the scientists. These are assessments of the dissertations of 25 (!!) deputies that were stolen or falsified. H**ere is the letter that was ultimately published on the basis of those reviews: http://onr-russia.ru/content/scientists2goverment Here is the list of signatories (as of today, 12:00 Moscow time)—400 Russian scientists (4 academicians and 13 corresponding members, 154 Doctors of Science and 246 Candidates of Science). That’s how it is. Badges and T-shirts are welcome.