A new president of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been elected; he is the general director of JSC Research Institute of Molecular Electronics, Academician Gennady Krasnikov. His electoral competitor, the current President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev, withdrew from the vote. According to Sergeev, he did this "because of the unprecedented pressure" that is being exerted on him "because of the position."
Sergeev also noted that voting had never been held under such conditions, many members of the Russian Academy of Sciences are subjected to psychological as well as external administrative pressure. Academicians face this after the publicly voiced "personal position".
Shortly before this, Sergeev spoke negatively about the large number of criminal cases against scientists and the severity of detentions. “We are the intelligentsia, it is not necessary to come to us with machine gunners,” Sergeyev noted. He suggested creating a special structure at the Russian Academy of Sciences, which would interact with the security forces in the event of initiation of criminal cases against scientists.
Gennady Krasnikov is a graduate of the Faculty of Physics and Technology of the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology, studied in the specialty "Automation and Electronics". He is the head of the Department of Micro- and Nanoelectronics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and also heads the Department of Submicron VLSI Technology at the National Research University MIPT.