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People gather in central Moscow to express protest against RAS reform

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday evening signed the controversial law on the RAS reform

Photo ITAR-TASS / Artyom Geodakian

Photo ITAR-TASS / Artyom Geodakian

MOSCOW, September 28 (Itar-Tass) - More than 100 people protesting the law on reforming of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) gathered on Novopushkinsky Square in central Moscow on Saturday.

The protest was organized as a meeting of the scientific public with legislators. A Communist Party member of the Duma, Vladimir Rodin, participated in the meeting.

Security was tightened up around the square. There were OMON policemen on duty. The territory was cordoned by policemen.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday evening signed the controversial law on the RAS reform.

Under the law, the Academies of Medical and Agricultural Sciences will be joined to the RAS, and their current academicians will become RAS members. The Russian government will decide on a maximum number of RAS members, following an academy meeting’s proposal. The law does not allow electing new academicians in the next three years.

The president also signed a decree on the establishment of the federal agency of scientific organizations, to which RAS organizations will be transferred. It will not apply to the academy’s Far Eastern, Siberian and Ural branches, whose assets will not be transferred.

The Russian parliament’s lower house State Duma passed the law on the reform recently, and the upper house Federation Council approved it.

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