MOSCOW. April 14 (Interfax) - The Russian Ministry of Science and Education has asked the U.S. authorities for an explanation of the ban to enter the United States for Russian physicists, Minister of Science and Education Dmitry Livanov said.
The cooperation with the U.S. is mutually beneficial and no one is interested in stopping it, Livanov said.
"The decision of several training centers to limit programs, which were between Russian and U.S. physicists, exists. We are analyzing the situation now, gathering information and, if necessary, we will address national laboratories and the Department of Energy for explanations," the minister told reporters on Monday.
"We assume that our technical cooperation is mutually beneficial and we would not begin these programs, if they were not of interest for us and if they were not of interest for our U.S. colleagues," Livanov said.
Russian science should be developed, in order to be less dependant [on another organization] in such a situation, the minister said.
"We think generally that we need to create scientific infrastructure and develop research methods, so that we are less susceptible to such situation," Livanov said.
"If such restrictions appear and are serious, this will have a negative impact not just on our scientists and scientific groups but on U.S. scientists as well," the minister said.
The U.S. Department of Energy closed access for Russian scientists to its laboratories indefinitely, the Kommersant newspaper reported earlier.