“Bad science” under the wing of the authorities

Putin's Great Patriotic Pseudoscience

Putin’s Great Patriotic Pseudoscience Maria Antonova, Foreign Policy

Translation: Inopressa

"The award ceremony had all the outward signs of legitimacy: an enthusiastic, inquisitive, mostly young audience gathered in a fashionable loft near the Kremlin, and the jury consisted of the best minds of the scientific community," Maria Antonova writes in her article.

But the jury was instructed to determine who most successfully "carried the light of ignorance to the masses," the author reports. When voting, the ballots were lowered into a foil cap.

"As a result, the prize "Honorary Member of the Academy of Pseudoscience", which was awarded for the first time in October, went to biologist Irina Ermakova, who regularly makes comments on Russian federal television. Ermakova said on the record that she believes that men as a sex evolved through evolution from the early Amazons-hermaphrodites. She belongs to the leading Russian anti–GMO activists and claims that genetically modified food is actually an American biological weapon, the purpose of which is genocide against Russia. By awarding her the prize, the Russian scientific community sought to show that even in difficult times it has not lost its sense of humor. The organizer of the event, Alexander Sokolov, a scientific observer, the author of award–winning books, made a bold statement from the stage: "Let as many people as possible see that science is alive in Russia and can protect itself!" the author narrates.

And comments: "But there are more and more signs that she can't."

"In a country that has produced about 17 Nobel laureates in scientific fields, science is under pressure. It's not just that funding has been cut (although it has been cut), or that this area is suffering from corruption and brain drain (although it really is suffering). Members of the scientific community say that one of the biggest problems they face is that the Russian state has recently been welcoming pseudo–scientists like Ermakova. The Kremlin has elevated and institutionalized their ideas, often mixing them with a healthy dose of anti–Western rhetoric for greater necessity," Antonova writes.

According to the author, Ermakova "acted as an expert in the Russian parliament, where populist deputies use her to support their fight against genetically modified products." In July, Russia adopted a law banning the production of genetically modified products.

"Among other people who believe in marginal pseudoscience and have been appointed to responsible positions, there is Mikhail Kovalchuk, a physicist from Putin's inner circle, who heads the Kurchatov Institute, which studies atomic energy," the article says. Last year, "Kovalchuk read a report to Russian senators in which he warned that the global elite under the leadership of the United States is developing a special subspecies of man – a genetically different caste of working "human servants" who eat little, think about little things and reproduce only by order. (Under this insane conspiracy theory and anti–Western exaggerations, a lobbying call for an increase in state funding was hidden so that his institute could remain at the forefront of revolutionary research)," the author claims.

In 2008, the Russian Academy of Sciences refused to elect Kovalchuk as its member. "It is believed that this and other steps of the academy aimed at rejecting Kovalchuk led to a retaliatory blow in 2013, when the Russian government took measures to dismantle this institution," the article says. The reforms have caused "great damage" to the academy, says scientific observer Alexander Sergeev.

"Those who believe in pseudoscience and advertise it now hold positions in various structures of the Russian government," the author writes. The head of the presidential administration, Anton Vaino, "in 2012 published a scientific paper about the "nooscope" – a mysterious mystical tool that, according to Vaino, can make predictions by scanning the universe and control society and the economy," the article says. "Finding such people in power is a new trend that demonstrates that the authorities are no longer afraid of open carriers of pseudoscientific ideas," Sergeyev said. "On the contrary, the authorities are ready to accept them and fall under their influence."

According to critics, the Kremlin has found that pseudoscience is in harmony with its current ideological needs.

"In September, a special commission of the Academy, designed to combat Russian pseudoscience, published a report with the conclusions that the rise of pseudoscience is partly due to the growing isolation of the country and nationalism. Russians who reject global scientific norms perceived these changes in ideology as a chance to seek state support for their projects," the article says.

"Meanwhile, the growing links between nationalism and pseudoscience give pseudoscientists the opportunity to accuse their critics of Russophobia and lack of patriotism," the article says.

"Sergeyev, a member of the academic commission, says that the Kremlin has not only created an atmosphere favorable for pseudoscience, but also, apparently, is trying to cut off genuine Russian scientists from the outside world. Last year, there were rumors that some universities were reviving the Soviet requirement for the administration to check scientific papers before publication, while others banned teachers from giving interviews without prior permission," the article says.

Russian scientists began to fight back. There is the aforementioned award and several independent projects to popularize science. "Since 2013, within the framework of the Dissernet project, a group of online vigilantes has been exposing widespread fraud in Russian PhD theses," the author notes.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  01.12.2016