Russia Seeks More Control At Academy Of Sciences

That caused some uneasiness, but Nekipelov, the academy's vice president, said the organization was happy to accept the provision after assurances from the Kremlin that it could never imagine a situation in which the academy's choice would be rejected. The academy would also accept an oversight committee if it has no executive functions, he said.

In January, however, the Ministry of Education and Sciences posted a "model charter" on its Web site and demanded that the academies accept it. According to Nekipelov and other academics, that document goes far beyond what was intended by the legislation and would effectively end the independence that allowed the academy to refuse to expel Sakharov.

During Soviet days, the academy also repeatedly denied membership to leading Communist Party members on grounds that they lacked scientific credentials. It has done the same concerning politicians in post-Soviet days. Last year, the academy refused to accept prominent members of parliament, as well as some businessmen who had petitioned to join. One of the politicians was widely believed to want membership so he could make a bid for the academy's presidency.

Under the government's model charter, many decisions would be handed over to supervisory committees, on which government appointees would hold a 2 to 1 majority. The boards each would have three academics, three representatives from the cabinet, one representative from each house of parliament and one from the presidential administration.

"There is no chance the Russian Academy of Sciences will ever adopt such a document," Nekipelov said. "Even if the leadership of the academy agreed to it, we could do nothing, because such a document could never pass the general assembly. We call it a mere provocation."

The government's model charter would abolish the direct and secret election of academy officers other than the president, including the heads of all institutes. They would instead be nominated by the academy's president and approved by its supervisory board.

Just as worrying, academicians said, the new board would allocate funding for research, which could lead to the suppression of specific projects, particularly in the social sciences, if government officials disapprove. The model charter would also allow some institutes to be placed under the control of individual ministries.

Nekipelov added that funding of basic research in areas such as physics, where breakthroughs are often uncertain and long in coming, would be subject to the whims of appointees who might not understand why some research can last decades.

"They say the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences will determine the main themes of scientific research, but money will be allocated by the supervisory committee. This is nonsense," Nekipelov said. "Determining spheres of research means allocating money to them. Without allocating money, it is just a list and nothing more."

Nekipelov says the government has provided some help to the academy in recent years -- increasing salaries for researchers, for instance, which allowed the organization to recruit younger members.

In the meantime, he said, the academy has been exploring how it can boost the commercial exploitation of its work and integrate more with the broader economy.

Livanov, the deputy minister, said the academy could quickly squeeze much more money out of its operations, particularly by exploiting its real estate. "Not long ago, we analyzed the assets of the academy, and our results showed us that these assets, if used efficiently, could generate 35 to 40 percent more revenue," Livanov said. "We're not changing ownership. It is state property and will remain state property."

"Now I hear the bell ring," said Rogov, of the U.S.-Canada institute. "That academy building would make a nice trading center, and that one a nice bank, and that one a nice mall."