Bioinformatician Mikhail Gelfand asks Europe for a program to welcome his colleagues willing to emigrate. Do you fear for your life? “Not yet”
Russian scientist Mikhail Gelfand, a bioinformatician at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology near Moscow, lived through the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the 1993 communist coup attempt, and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Now, is witness to the bloody invasion of Ukraine by Putin, a war that, he admits to this newspaper, he never thought he would see. He reacted. As soon as the attack took place, he and other researchers promoted an open letter in which they invited their colleagues, disseminators, and scientific journalists to condemn the attack. There are already more than 5,000 signatures, he assures him. And they keep counting.
“Scientists as a community have been the first to react to war.
Teachers, artists, doctors, etc, have followed us. In fact, it is a routine pattern: other waves of protests, of great local but minimal importance – and therefore less well known in the West – have also started with letters from scientists. I don’t know why, but it’s an empirical fact,” explains Gelfand, whose wife is of Ukrainian origin.
The letter, published in TrV-Nauka, an independent science news site that he helps edit, calls the invasion “senseless” while blaming Russia alone. The signatories, including Nobel laureate Konstantin Novosiolov, ‘father’ of graphene, lament how this action condemns their country “to international isolation, to the position of a pariah country”, which would mean a fatal wound for Russian researchers. “Russia’s isolation from the world means further cultural and technological degradation of our country in the complete absence of positive prospects. The war with Ukraine is a step to nowhere, “says one of the paragraphs.“Drop the space station? The boss of Roscomos is an idiot”
Resentment toward the Russian
That is Gelfand’s greatest fear. “Administrative severing of all contacts with Russian scientists would be a very unfair and short-sighted act. I would punish those very people who have defended freedom. In addition, it would only help the oppressive regime maintain its control over the country, “he points out to ABC.
The scientist acknowledges the “general resentment towards everything Russian” and understands “the security concerns”. However, he points out, “this can be worked out on a case-by-case basis.” It would require a “level of sophistication that Western bureaucracy has not yet demonstrated, but they should try.” Similarly, he hopes that the “radical decisions” taken “hastily” by some Western agencies will be reversed “and the situation will come a little closer to normal.”
The example of Israel
He knows that will not happen as long as the war continues. Although he has been forced to stop his work for the past three days, he has no intention of leaving his country. However, “a good movie could be to announce a Europe-wide program to help scientists willing to emigrate. The West would benefit from great young people (and not necessarily young people) », he says. And he gives Israel as an example, “which in the 1990s absorbed well-trained, highly-skilled and bright-minded immigration.”“Many people have taken to the streets and are arrested”
As for the unusual passive-aggressive insinuation by Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, about an eventual exit from orbit and impact of the International Space Station (ISS) on the US or Europe, if relations are broken by not having the Russian technology, Gelfand does not give him any credit. “Rogozin is a well-known idiot, the subject of many jokes and memes,” he says.
The researcher believes that the scientific fields that would be most affected if there is a rupture in collaboration with the West would be all the experimental sciences. His field is bioinformatics, systems biology, and molecular evolution, so he would be seriously handicapped. His own future, and that of his students, “depends on the future of Russia.” Asked about new protest mobilizations, he asks that we not focus on him. “A lot of people are doing a lot of things. Including going to the streets and being arrested there », he states.
