On violations of the Charter of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS)

Abstract

24.07.2016 a large group of academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) wrote a letter to the President of the Russian Federation V. V. Putin, in which they gave an unfavorable assessment of the current state of Russian science. The letter listed a number of measures aimed at correcting the current state of science, and noted that "the time of political correctness is over, it is high time to speak out openly calling things by their proper names".Meeting with a group of academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences in December of 2016, the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin stressed the timeliness of setting the above problems and the need to eliminate the noted deficiencies, drawing attention to the fact that only outstanding scientists of international standing with significant scientific achievements should be elected as academicians of the RAS.In connection with the critical assessment of the current state of Russian science in its various fields, expressed in the aforesaid letter of the academicians, it is of some interest to analyze the scientific activities and scientific achievements of some Russian scientists, in particular, in the field of thermal power engineering. For this analysis, articles were used published in the Teploenergetika (Heat Power Engineering) journal as well as a Report prepared under agreement No.14.574.21.0017 with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (hereinafter — MoE&S) on improving the thermodynamic and technical-economic efficiency of trigeneration plants at distributed and small-scale power generation facilities.As follows from this analysis, the authors of the aforesaid publications mislead the scientific community and the MoE&S concerning the alleged increase of thermodynamic and technical-economic efficiency of trigeneration plants considered by them. There are no grounds for such conclusions, since the listed materials contain no specific results of experimental and/or calculation studies of thermodynamic and technical-economic efficiency of trigeneration plants. It is therefore very strange that a Committee of the MoE&S signed an Act certifying “proper” implementation of Agreement No. 14.574.21.0017.