MOSCOW. Aug 16 (Interfax) - The Russian Ministry of Education and Science should revoke its controversial order regarding Russian scientists' contacts with their foreign counterparts, according to Alexei Khokhlov, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"This order should be revoked. Perhaps, there should be an instruction on how the state secrecy law is working with regard to institutes which carry out secret work: there are big institutes which employ 800 people, but only ten would have access to the secret topic. For these ten, work should be organized in such a way as to not inconvenience other scientists. This is how it is everywhere in the world," Khokhlov told Interfax on Thursday.
The claim that the United States also restricts its scientists' contacts with those from China is correct in principle, but that does not mean necessarily following "this bad example," he said. Besides, there are many more Americans than Russians in the sphere of science and high technologies, he said.
"Restrictions [of this kind] are deathlike for us. Science is a universal sharing of information, defense and commercial secrets being the exception. When it comes to fundamental science, it is important to ensure free exchange of ideas," Khokhlov said.
The latest presidential "May's decree" and government proposals aim to create attractive conditions for the best scientists from across the world and launch major scientific installations and world-class science centers in Russia. The ministerial order at issue would negate all such initiatives, he said.
Overall, the ministry's draft regulations are of poor quality, Khokhlov said.
"Our science ministry releases very raw documents. Unfortunately, the level of its paperwork is very low. This paper [the latest order] proved controversial but all others, too, leave much room for improvement," Khokhlov said.
A scan of the order was posted on the trv-science.ru website yesterday. The order had been sent to the Education and Science Ministry's divisions.
The document prompted a broad public outcry. The Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov promised to look into the situation. Later the science ministry's press service explained that the order was a mere recommendation.