With gratitude to the "Russian People's Line" - editor-in-chief Anatoly Dmitrievich Stepanov and deputy editor-in-chief Alexander Valentinovich Timofeev, who agreed to provide this material, because this is an appeal for help to the President of the country, the Prosecutor's Office, lawyers, as well as scientists of the country who know my works and me personally. Put aside grudges and let's help each other - otherwise they will eat one by one! Don’t be afraid, there is the President of the Russian Federation, the prosecutor’s office is still working. Let's hope someone can help.

First, I will outline the circumstances and give my assessments, then I will formulate an appeal to the President of Russia.

On September 23, 2019, a report from the RAS Commission for Combating Pseudoscience, unsigned by members, was posted on the RAS website, which allegedly exposes unscrupulous candidates for the RAS. It was presented peremptorily, rudely, with obvious pressure to expel them from their ranks, to influence elections, with recommendations not to vote, but it boils down to siphoning information from an Internet fraudulent group that has seized the right to dispose of dissertations and their comparison in the country, having gained access by introducing standards posting unprotected works on the Internet (which directly undermines information security country, but provides a field of labor for this group of fraudsters). Why scammers? Yes, because they know very well that the opponent and even the supervisor could not identify plagiarism - technically. However, even eminent academicians are hung up to discredit them. Moreover, in a boorish manner it is indicated that the legal aspect of the issue is of no interest to anyone, it is necessary to argue on the scientific side. And argue, excuse me, in connection with what? What is required for the scientific part? What scientific ethics do opponents or leaders violate? Are they buying up other people’s dissertations or selling them for 250-550 rubles on the Internet? By the way, the authors don’t get a penny from this, their intellectual work and intellectual property are so important (which lives its own life after being transferred to the state repository, ending up for analysis private trader), which these third fraudulent groups defend and fight for, existing on whose money it is not clear? Apparently, the West pays well for discrediting and subjugating Russian science. As always, the councils invited opponents to defend themselves and sent a letter stating that the opponent should evaluate the novelty, practical significance, and degree of reliability of the results, but not compare texts to identify plagiarism. This is not his task, especially since there was no comparison technology at that time, and the examination was carried out by the RSL (later, apparently, for the sake of Internet fraudulent groups, it was deprived of this right, by the way). So, it was on the basis of the information of this Internet fraudulent group that the RAS Commission compiled its “report”.

According to the presumption of guilt, the Report contains three indictments against me:

1. Serial production of bad dissertations;

2. Work in a certain center that seems to be using something illegally and is an impostor;

3. As an opponent, I opposed works (13, but I opposed many more and have also opposed them since 2014), where supposedly (who checked?) some coincidences were found, as well as in two works of my applicants (by the way, out of 20).

Regarding opposition and leadership, it was noted above that when there is no technology for comparing texts and this is not the function of the opponent, how can you blame him for anything? I'm not even saying that the very form of searching for witches with reference to the scientific activity of the opponent himself is blatant savagery and abomination. Contribution to the opponent’s science, and if another work, I emphasize, something was discovered!

The leader could also be blamed if several students copied from each other, but he did not notice. These swindlers are trying to level exactly the same charges against Academician Bokeria. However, my two applicants did not know each other and had not seen each other’s work, they carried out the research independently, apparently they made a mistake, either when preparing footnotes, or joint work with someone when composing the dissertation was included in its general text (and the volume of this not big). But the supervisor physiologically cannot establish this, or they made technical errors in the layout of the text when reworking the work; this often happens, especially in reviews that are imposed on dissertation candidates at different stages of their research by the very system of preparing such works. By the way, their work was quite good for its time, for one I came up with the use of a three-vector diagram taking into account institutional factors, for the second, a calculation criterion for the development of regional mortgages. These are protections from 10-12 years ago. I suggested this personally, I remember from memory, maybe there was something else - you can’t remember everything, so this contribution certainly cannot be plagiarism. There was novelty in the works, they received it, this is not plagiarism. Therefore, it is the pseudo-legal reasoning of the Commission that is ridiculous. If texts are being defended, then why bother with questions, reports, pre-defenses, and all the hassle. It would be better if you collected statistics on how many people get sick after doctoral studies and die from frayed nerves, and you should pay people in the 2000s so that they don’t rot half-starved. Do you think they don’t do custom work now? The price has increased and everything is run through anti-plagiarism, texts are checked - that’s it, novelty is not needed, no matter what. But no one needs novelty with a formal approach to plagiarism. No one even takes into account errors in footnote formatting. This is without a doubt a plagiarism psychosis in the country. Now graduate students and doctoral students adjust everything to anti-plagiarism, but there is no novelty or it is small, but everything passes! This is what we got in the end. Even students have this psychosis imposed on essentially educational work, and they are engaged in paraphrasing, but there was no knowledge, and there is no aspiration with this approach. The commission essentially subsumed the principles of the Academy under a formal approach, fighting, supposedly for high ideals, under a game imposed by scammers. Of course, no one is for it, if, say, 70% of the work is written off, novelty and so on - this is not acceptable, but when layout errors of 5 pages of text are passed off as a heinous crime - this is wild and funny. Look at the novelty, maybe there is a revolution in science, but you didn’t notice it - fighters for the purity of the ranks! The struggle itself cannot be carried out using low methods, meanness, distortion, outside the legal framework by third parties, as well as conclusions that are not based on anything - simply false in my case. In this case, it was the Commission itself that crossed the line of scientific ethics, using dirty election technologies in the elections of the Russian Academy of Sciences - for the first time in its history. In 2016, during the elections, Internet fraudsters themselves made such mailings, as one of the academicians told me, now this lie is posted on the RAS website. Congratulations to RAS.

The impudence of this Commission is simply amazing. She requires some kind of evidence. No, please provide evidence of the serial production of certain works by me, just sign the evidence so that it is clear who to call for criminal liability for libel, with whom we will further deal with in the legal field. Because in principle there was no production, and there could not be. I have not dealt with such things - everyone knows this, even from my critical reviews in dissertation councils. Post all my reviews - on all opposed dissertations. Many have been hanging since 2014 - so what about you? Bring them! Bring my work from my personal website or link to it everywhere. No, it’s easier to blame and insult!

The meanness of this Commission is not even that it believed Internet scammers, and that it does not seem to want to notice that people did not have the opportunity to conduct such a check (and should not even have done it according to the established practice of protection of that time), but that , that this is done before the elections, when no one wants to understand anything, a contribution to science is not needed, punctures are needed, largely far-fetched, in order to push through their thieves candidates who have not done a damn thing IN SCIENCE, almost a week, precocious, those who defended themselves during the checks, who did not really oppose, and if they did, then after 2014. Since 2014, when text control technology appeared, I also oppose and everything is fine, but I also do not check for plagiarism myself, this is done by the department and the council, not the opponent! That is, the presence of technology determines everything, at least a lot, and to lynch an opponent and even a leader, knowing in advance that he is not to blame for this, not taking into account his works and his contribution in the elections to the Russian Academy of Sciences, clearly dragging thieves through - that’s official crime committed by individual members of the RAS. Truly, a situation arises where “those who do not work eat those who work.” If I hadn’t opposed it, I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere!

A person could work in the center and not be aware of what logo the organization uses and whether it is legal, some of the time it could be legal use? Not to mention why the Russian Academy of Sciences allowed the illegal use of a brand for a long time, which is now being undermined by the work of such Commissions? I did not work in the specified center, but even if I did, they want to make it seem as if I was guilty of something, only because the center posted information about me taken from the Internet, making some of their own plans, which are clearly not came true. Employee to the label and name, whether it is used legally or not, may have nothing to do with it at all!

Which commission will deal with this? No, they show that they don’t need to figure it out, everything has been decided, they need to criticize by siphoning some information from the scammers. In 2019, it seems that even the reports were cancelled. If they reproached me in 2016, why didn’t you report? And A.I. Tatarkin died and I couldn’t come to my senses for six months, if not more - I adored him! What reports are there! But it turns out that in 2019 there is no need to perform anymore, why were they reproached in 2016? A? They don’t want to listen, it’s hard, apparently! It’s easier to publish libels (false information) on the RAS website!

I’ll tell you how they started sneaking in thieves in advance (I can name the names of Sergeeva A.M. personally!) Imagine, a person defends, say, a doctorate on June 3, of course, it’s already passed anti-plagiarism, but what’s the point - there’s nothing in it , out of 15 council members, 10 people vote for it, that is, it passes with one vote. However, a person submits a candidate for election, and the deadline for submitting documents is, say, June 9 (the coincidence of dates is random). That is, he is de facto a candidate of science! They are in such a hurry, they are afraid of not making it in time! Voting is already in October and by this time, apparently, a doctoral diploma is being delivered and submitted, which could not have existed at the time of submitting the documents. Even then there are requests to give him a vote - a tick, why? To highlight it for the next elections to the Russian Academy of Sciences. A year later, a professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences is given about the same thing - one place in total. The rest are in flight. And why was it introduced a professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, that is, a professor of the Higher Attestation Commission, it was difficult to get - it became difficult, they tightened it, and why then did they tighten it up to introduce “professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences” for thieves, and why are there three titles in the country - professor by department, professor by specialty (this is the Higher Attestation Commission) and a professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences?! Why all this leapfrog? With limited places, with tougher HAC ranks? Is one professor more “professorial” than another? So, in two years our character receives both a doctorate and a professorship at the Russian Academy of Sciences - have his achievements expanded? Not really! The proximity to the connection is great! And in 2019, on May 6, an announcement about the elections appears, and on May 12 - they chose - his name is heard on the sidelines! How is that?

I will say one thing, without a detailed consideration of the contribution, and with an orientation only towards lampoons - all this cannot be called a choice! The reform of the RAS, as I proposed in 2006, 2009 and 2013, must be carried out by changing the atmosphere within the RAS and election procedures - the essence of this system. However, reading, understanding, opposing (for free, without bribes) is work, but engaging in libels, downloading from the Internet from scammers is the norm of behavior of a modern scientist! The zero order must be applied to such a Commission - it must be nullified, and in order to apply the comparison technology - this is the period from which the technology was created - look, and then give those people who have been in science for a long time and whom you identify in some paragraphs the opportunity to defend themselves. Look at the contribution! But this needs to be done, it’s easier to pick out lampoons. And if this is a fit and there are no matches, but the contribution is large, what then? The honesty of Internet scammers who are not pure is higher than the honesty of scientists and university employees?!! Good criterion!

And this character, out of 109 works in the “Elibrery” (as of July of this year, documents have already been submitted for the elections), has about 24 of his own, the rest is co-authored - and often by 3-4 people. So, maybe we should elect them all, so that it wouldn’t be offensive, eh, Commission? This is a disgrace, and the Academy was set up by its Commission, which was too carried away by the fight against lies, itself succumbed to it and began, apparently, to serve, perhaps without wanting to

Thus, the RAS, in the person of the Commission on Pseudoscience, to my deep regret, has sunk to the level of street fights in the alley, having fallen under the heel of fraudulent individuals on the Internet, apparently believing that unproven formalism is precisely the tool for inflicting competitive defeat on rivals. The Commission itself does not provide a single scientific or even legal argument, violating the entire conceivable order of things and established practice, which representatives of the Commission cannot but know about.

Yes, it turns out that the RAS Commission created a scandal, apparently that’s what they wanted. This will also affect the vote, but I honestly stated the facts of the matter! For vile accusations cannot be left unanswered.

Address to the President of the Russian Federation

Copies: President of the RAS A.M. Sergeev.

To the Prosecutor General of Russia

Supreme Court of the Russian Federation

Dear Mr. President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich!

I appeal to you with a huge request to protect my constitutional rights in the elections to the Russian Academy of Sciences, in which I was nominated by two universities, an academician, and two corresponding members. To defend the honor and dignity of those teams that have nominated me for the second time to the RAS.

Graduated from school with a silver medal, technical university with honors without a B (research engineer, research education, unlike many of our economists), defended 2 dissertations and wrote more than 20 scientific books. Works published in Italian, Ukrainian, English, Chinese - in different countries. I have the RAS medal for young scientists, the best economist of the RAS for 2008, the Kondratiev medal for contribution to the development of social sciences.

I ask you to influence the RAS to prevent the use of false information about candidates for membership of the RAS posted on the RAS website and prepared by the Commission for Combating Pseudoscience (report), which disseminates false information. In the conditions of elections, a month before them, this can be regarded as a deliberate influence on candidates and on the choice in sections of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which makes the choice unreasonable. The RAS Commission is pursuing such an impact, which it openly declares; its work is designed precisely for this purpose!

On the RAS website there is information discrediting my honor and dignity, of a slanderous nature, as if I produced dissertations in series, worked in some self-proclaimed center and participated in dishonest defenses. None of this is true. I did not produce anything, I did not work at the center, but in defenses I participated in scientific discussions, which I often initiated on my own, preparing reviews without payment, giving them critically, and the dissertation councils voted for the assignment, which was also carried out by the expert councils of the Higher Attestation Commission. Such accusations are illegal, they show the destructive side of where the RAS has gone in its bravura and ostentatious desire to demonstrate a supposedly fair election regime (in 2019, even the reports of candidates in the elections have been canceled; they were in 2016) - but using absolutely dishonest methods. This report, in fact, contains a call not to vote for the people included in the document, and, moreover, the document contains a threat that the named people, I am talking only about myself, although the threat concerns everyone, there is no place in the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences and educational institutions(violation of the constitutional right to educational and scientific activities, as well as labor law). How can we understand such a threat, if I have been working in science and education for 23 years, I have always loved and tried to do my job professionally - I have no other place of work. After such lampoons on the RAS website, of course, I don’t want to work in this organization, but I have no other place where I could freely do science. And I am elected because there is hope to change something, that someday they will be assessed for their overall contribution to science.

Please help me pay attention General Prosecutor's Office, court, regarding the issue of initiating an administrative and/or criminal case against the authors of the said document (Report of the Commission for Combating Pseudoscience dated September 23, 2019, on the RAS website) based on the fact of slanderous information posted on the RAS website, deliberately discrediting a person’s reputation - This is exactly how the document was submitted.

I ask for help.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, if this continues, then the Russian Academy of Sciences will slide “to a street organization” that compares texts, curses people, and will not be able to evaluate either a person’s books or articles, which, by the way, are all available.

With respect and hope for help, Doctor of Economics, Prof., Chief Researcher Institute of Economics RAS

Oleg Sukharev

Support the fight against pseudoscience- one of the priority areas of the fund’s work. "Evolution" supports the creation of memorandums of the Commission to Combat Pseudoscience and Falsification scientific research at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and also together with the organizing committee of the forum “Scientists against Myths” and the portal “Anthropogenesis.ru”, she established the VRunic Academy of Pseudosciences (VRAL).

The first result collaboration"Evolution" and the RAS Commission for Combating Pseudoscience became Memorandum No. 1 “On the pseudoscientific status of commercial testing for skin patterns of fingers”, published May 2016. In it we say our decisive “I don’t believe” to those who, for money, read a person’s character, fate, predispositions and illnesses from the patterns on his fingers. The memorandum was widely distributed and caused many publications in the media, including programs on central TV. We are sure that now it will be more difficult for “dermatoglyphists” to deceive people and infiltrate schools and universities.

Published in February 2017 Memorandum No. 2 “On the pseudoscience of homeopathy”. The document caused a great resonance in society and the media: more than 4,000 media publications, including in the Western Independent and Nature, an uncountable number of posts and comments in social networks, cartoons, memes and sticker packs on Telegram. We continue to keep our finger on the pulse and await the promised steps from the Ministry of Health.

Reference: The Commission to Combat Pseudoscience and Falsification of Scientific Research under the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences was created in 1999 on the initiative of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vitaly Ginzburg and is engaged in public criticism of pseudoscience and beliefs in the existence of paranormal phenomena. In particular, thanks to the activities of the commission, it was possible to prevent a large-scale scam by Viktor Petrik.

In 2016, the commission created a special publication format - memoranda, which should briefly, clearly, objectively and unemotionally record current state scientific consensus on topics that cause the most heated debate in society. Now the preparation of memorandums is carried out by experts recommended by the commission with the support of the Evolution Foundation. The final texts of the memorandums, after approval by the commission, are published on its website, as well as in the newsletter “In Defense of Science”.

On October 2, 2016, in Moscow, with the support of Evolution, the forum “Scientists against Myths 2” was held, in which more than 600 delegates participated live, and about 400 more people watched the event online. On the eve of the forum, the Scientific and Educational Portal “Anthropogenesis.ru” and the “Evolution” Foundation established the anti-award “Honorary Academician of VRAL”. The three finalists were selected through a popular vote on social media. The first “Honorary Academician of VRAL” was an active fighter against GMOs (as a “product of extraterrestrial civilizations”) Irina Ermakova, she received a wonderful prize - a sculpture of a sad reptilian. The jury of scientists and popularizers of science decided that her merits in the field of pseudoscience are even better than the contributions of the author of “New Chronology” Anatoly Fomenko and the “linguistic” satirist Mikhail Zadornov.

Nominees:

• Irina Ermakova
• Anatoly Fomenko
• Mikhail Zadornov

Jury members:

• Mikhail Gelfand
• Irina Levontina
• Mikhail Lidin
• Natalia Demina
• Alexander Panchin
• Svetlana Burlak
• Svetlana Borinskaya
• Alexey Vodovozov
• Mikhail Rodin
• Alexey Bondarev
• Stanislav Drobyshevsky

Here's how the main Pseudoscience Prize of 2016 was awarded:

“Finally, to the sound of fanfare, the presenters announced the voting results: a landslide victory for Irina Ermakova. The jury members justified their choice by the fact that the anti-GMO movement causes real damage to the development of Russian science and the country's economy. A charming assistant brought the main prize onto the stage - a sculpture of a sad reptilian by Nikita Makletsov - but alas, the winner did not show up for the ceremony, and the prize went to Mikhail Gelfand (Mikhail promised to give the award to Irina Ermakova at the first opportunity). Members of VRAL and Fomenko and Zadornov did not show up to receive their diplomas, although, according to the organizers, official invitations were sent to all finalists.” Full text via the link.

Reference: LIE is a prestigious organization, which you cannot become a member of at any cost. This high honor is awarded only to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to Russian pseudoscience. Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (posthumously), Dzhuna (posthumously) and Ambrosy Ambruazovich Vibegallo (virtually) have already become full members of VRAL. Applicants and finalists are selected by open voting, and the winner is determined by a jury. All finalists are awarded the position of corresponding member of the Runic Academy of Pseudosciences.

The program is funded by donations from a private donor.

You can specifically support the program of the Evolution Foundation to combat pseudoscience,

https://www.site/2018-03-13/chlen_komissii_ran_po_borbe_s_lzhenaukoy_o_merzkoy_dissertacii_medinskogo_i_mrakobesii

“I would not like to further strain the feelings of believers”

Member of the RAS commission to combat pseudoscience about Medinsky’s “vile” dissertation and obscurantism

Why is Russia in the 21st century mired in obscurantism and all kinds of charlatanism? A dialogue about this took place at the Yeltsin Center as part of the “Another Conversation” series with a member of the RAS commission on combating pseudoscience, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor at the Higher School of Economics Vasily Vlasov. For almost two hours, the scientist answered questions from the audience about the fight against pseudoscience, all kinds of sorcerers, healers, clairvoyants and psychics in modern Russian realities. He was consistently criticized by: ex-chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Boris Gryzlov, head of the Ministry of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, head SKR Alexander Bastrykin, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to Vlasov, if the current management system is preserved, the situation with the decline in education, science, medicine and, on the contrary, the rise of obscurantism will only worsen.

Petrik filters

— What is the RAS commission to combat pseudoscience, what can you really do?

- Nothing. One of the first to become concerned with the problem of combating pseudoscience was the Novosibirsk scientist Eduard Pavlovich Kruglyakov, who recently left us. Why do various scoundrels extract their share from our motherland’s limited funds for science for their theories and live well? This was back in the 1990s. People then came to President [Boris] Yeltsin and offered to extract energy from the stone, and received money for this. There were many such examples.

— Remember [Viktor] Petrik’s project.

- It was later. This is exactly the moment when I began to participate in this matter, helping to stop the robbery of Russia in favor of the developers of these filters. Through the courts, we then managed to stop this scam. At the same time, the chairman of parliament had patents for the production of these filters together with Petrik.

- Can you name his patron?

— Boris Gryzlov, mustachioed ex-chairman of our State Duma. They produced these filters together, held patents and received royalties on them (with the participation of Gryzlov " United Russia"launched a party project" Clean water"related to the use of Petrik filters..

— Does your commission have any powers?

— What powers can scientists have? You can only appeal to the public - just like we did last year in connection with homeopathy.

About the fight against homeopathy and the strange position of the Russian Ministry of Health

— We are talking about a memorandum against homeopathy, in which your commission criticized the Russian Ministry of Health for supporting homeopathy.

— Before you start blaspheming our Ministry of Health, let me say that nature created a person with an imperfect brain. Therefore, people have difficulty mastering complex knowledge and often cannot understand new knowledge modern science. People still tend to trust that the Earth was visited by aliens, the waters of the seas parted, and inside the Earth there is another - large sizes.

— The Minister of Health should not belong to such people.

Who is a modern Russian, what diseases does he have, what kind of offspring does he leave behind? The opinion of doctors of the Russian Academy of Sciences

— Formally, it shouldn’t, but in many countries of the world this happens. Even down to the members of royal families, there are people who tend to believe in the great healing powers sugar balls [which are homeopathic remedies]. In the UK, this is why they cannot point homeopathy to its place alongside osteopathy, chiropractic and acupuncture. Our Ministry of Health is also in this situation. They also believe in the healing powers of sugar balls. In Russia there is a law on medicines, which states that homeopathic remedies are the same medicines as others. Moreover, in the summer of 2017, four months after the release of our memorandum, the Ministry of Health issued an order regulating how to conduct an examination medicines. Regarding homeopathic medicines, it says that no examination is required.

- Why?

- It’s clear why - homeopaths cannot prove that there is something in their balls. This is completely obvious to American regulators, which is why last year and the year before they imposed serious restrictions on homeopathy. For some reason, this logic does not seem correct to our Ministry of Health.

— This connivance of homeopathy is the result of lobbying efforts by the manufacturers of these drugs, does it all have a selfish motive?

— The Ministry of Health is completely normal people, and your hypothesis about selfish motives seems to me the most plausible.

- Maybe it's just about... alternative medicine?

- There is a certain classification. Alternative medicine is that which opposes precision medicine and tries to replace it. For example, osteopathy, when all human diseases are explained by dislocations and the location of bones. The same iridology, when the diagnosis is made by the iris of the eyes. There is a complementary medical practice when they try to add sugar balls to antibiotics...

Should marijuana be legalized?

— Maybe it’s simpler: there is medicine and non-medicine?

— The problem is that the definition of medicine is not entirely clear. I, for example, insist that medicine is a social practice in helping people suffer from so-called diseases. And if there is a remedy that alleviates human suffering, then medicine will strive to use it. Now, for example, we are in an interesting period on the issue of drugs.

— For the last 60 years, humanity has been fighting them.

“But now the process is unfolding to include marijuana among the means available to patients. It has been experimentally shown that in some cases the use of marijuana leads to pain relief. Now in some countries marijuana is already permitted not only as a medicine, but also as a means of pleasure. Again, marijuana has been shown to cause significantly less harm to humans than smoking tobacco. Returning to homeopathy, I want to say that there is no point in banning it. If a person wants to buy sugar balls, then he should not be limited in this. It is important that public funds in hospitals are not spent on it.

VSD, dietary supplement, Agapkin, senile scientists

— What to do with doctors who make non-existent diagnoses, conditional VSD (vegetative-vascular dystonia, which is not on the international list of diseases, but in Russia how is it diagnosed and treated?

— VSD was invented by the Germans, and it came to us after World War II, just like physiotherapy. This in developed countries there really isn't any left. There is a saying: “There are no bigger bastards in the world than medical generals.” Our medical authorities are just such medical generals. They are the ones who are now destroying our medical education, which could help put an end to all kinds of VSD. According to the new law on healthcare, postgraduate medical education - residencies and internships - has ceased to be compulsory in Russia. That is, what we have been developing since 1967 in the country and what is considered normal throughout the world. And all this against the background of reduction budget places and an increase in paid places in universities. This is just one sign of a sharp deterioration in the quality of medical education in Russia. I am afraid that in the near future we will face further degradation in this area.

— Why do Russian scientists become partners with charlatans, as happened in the case of [TV presenter, rector of the so-called Institute traditional systems recovery] Sergei Agapkin and Doctor of Medical Sciences Alexander Myasnikov?

— People in force age-related changes may become less critical of what they do. Memory deteriorates, reactions slow down. Many realize this in time and leave science. But some people cannot do this, since age-related degradation occurs gradually and the changes are not so obvious. Your example is more from the area of ​​desire for money. For example, on the website of the Society of Evidence-Based Medicine in September 2016, I posted a video in which a Moscow professor insisted on including the domestic drug Cortexin, the effectiveness of which has not been proven, in the list of vital drugs. Her only argument was that the drug was selling well. In the end they voted unanimously in favor. Here it is necessary to explain that professorial salaries in Russia are now 50 thousand rubles per month. The same money can be received for a lecture hour ordered by a pharmaceutical company. The temptation is great.

— How do you feel about dietary supplements, without which you can’t even give birth to a child now?

— The very phrase dietary supplement is a deception. This is a dietary supplement. They are specially disguised as drugs. At one time, the largest manufacturer of nutritional supplements, the Evalar company, opened points of sale as pharmacies, packaging everything to the point of confusion. You need to understand that, from a business point of view, nutritional supplements have enormous advantages. They, unlike normal drugs, can be produced virtually at random, and this is much more profitable. Plus, people a priori want to become healthier; this desire can easily be used to buy them. It is clear that this is complete bullshit - you cannot become healthier, you can only cure or not cure some disease. There is no way to increase your health; there is no way to live longer. But people continue to believe in it and clutch at straws.

— Why, in this case, do doctors themselves prescribe dietary supplements?

“There are even doctors who sincerely believe that taking vitamins can seriously improve the situation. Meanwhile, it has already been proven that multivitamins in beautiful jars cannot improve anything. In the US, pharmaceutical companies are required to disclose which doctors they pay and how much they pay. In Russia they are protected by the law on personal data, and they take advantage of it. This is another explanation why this happens. Now, for example, I am indignantly fighting against such a practice of introducing the domestic drug “Fortelizin” into the system of treating myocardial infarctions.

— Is this an import substitution program?

- Yes. By the way, there is an analogue of the Berlinger company, which has proven itself in the world.

Doctors' new case

— We have such an organ as investigative committee, led by Comrade Bastrykin. He recently published an article about iatrogenic crimes (careless actions that have consequences against the health and life of a person.), In which, it seems, the possibility of a person’s natural death is not allowed at all. What to do with this position?

— Humanity has long ago decided for itself the issue of the responsibility of a doctor. The doctor is not responsible for the outcome of treatment, but for what he does. If he does everything right, then he has no responsibility. Otherwise, the principle would work: if you managed to see the doctor, it means you stayed alive.

I am not at all a supporter of the conspiracy theory, but the history of the persecution of doctors in Russia is systemic and systematic. Apparently, in 2016, some non-public decision was made, according to which in 2017 the investigative practice was completely changed. And Bastrykin’s speech on iatrogenic crimes took place against the backdrop of a massive attack by all organs of violence against doctors. This practice is still developing today. I wouldn’t be surprised if a particularly strict regime colony will soon be set up for doctors. The pathetic responses from doctors are ineffective. I think that there is the only real recipe for resisting this phenomenon - the creation of trade union organizations in medical institutions. At the same time, [Mikhail] Shmakov’s trade union system, which originates from Soviet trade unions, is not suitable for this. The most odious example is a recording of a meeting leaked onto the Internet with the head of the Moscow Ministry of Health. There, the chairman of the Moscow branch of the medical workers' union teaches chief doctors how to fire staff when hospitals are closed, so that people cannot then be reinstated through the courts.

Pseudoscience and the “monkey trial” in Russia

— Don’t you think that pseudoscience has now experienced some kind of unprecedented flourishing in Russia?

- Let me disagree with you. This has always been the case.

— But the popularization of pseudoscience in Soviet era definitely wasn't!

— The great mathematician Blaise Pascal became in his time an equally great propagandist of Christianity. He came up with a completely fantastic argument, inaccessible to ordinary priests: “If you believe in God, then you spend some time a day on prayer and then receive the kingdom of heaven. If you don’t believe in God, then you lose him.” This is a mathematician's argument. Newton studied the Bible like a scientist. Now the boundary between real science and pseudoscience is more or less defined. But just yesterday it was a different, much more vague sphere. Soviet society, of course, imposed restrictions on all kinds of deceptive healers. In the late 1980s, liberalization opened the way for them to enter the stage. These are the costs open society. MMM also could not have been born in the USSR...

— Several years ago in St. Petersburg, schoolgirl Maria Schreiber filed a lawsuit, challenging the fact that in biology lessons she was taught Darwin’s theory of the evolution of species, and not the biblical version of the divine origin of things.

- The case is not as simple as you make it out to be. I believe that the schoolgirl did not take the initiative herself. Surely, a certain influential religious figure also came to the court in his Lamborghini and insisted that this lawsuit should be accepted. Even our fairest court in the world would hardly accept this claim for consideration in a normal manner. Let me remind you that in the USA there is a similar “monkey process” ( trial The 1925-1926 Tennessee criminal trial of a schoolteacher who was accused of violating the Butler Anti-Darwinian Act, which allowed the teaching of the biblical version of human origins, was also initiated by certain groups. But the fact is that in a civilized society the court serves as a place for clarifying the truth. This is what happened in the USA, it arose normal regulation. In our case, this all becomes a way to promote an organization that is afraid cash registers(Schreiber’s claim was rejected by the court in 2007, despite the support of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II..

- Is this a sign of our time?

- Just like disappearing clocks and nanodust (referring to the scandalous stories associated with the name of the current Patriarch Kirill..

Why is the magician of the commission on pseudoscience of the Russian Academy of Sciences

— What is the artist of the original genre, Yuri Gorny, doing on your commission in this case, a man who performs magic tricks and is called a socionics specialist?

- An absolutely necessary person. A significant part of pseudoscientists are people who falsify their conclusions and experiments. This is quite difficult to detect. And in different countries, magicians are brought in to find out the truth. On March 25, another event will take place to test psychics for the Houdini Prize. They promise to pay a million rubles to those who prove their abilities. So far, none of them have been able to do this. They find no gold, no photographs, and cannot predict anything. We can't live without magicians.

— What are the criteria that allow us to determine what is scientific and what is pseudoscientific? After all, there are ideas that at first glance seem absurd and only over time it turns out that the thing is serious?

“Only all this can be clarified through correct scientific research.” Normal science checks and rechecks any discovery. This does not work in the case of pseudoscience. For example, when the article about cloning Dolly the sheep was published, this same sheep was already six or eight months old. Why? The magazine double-checked it at its own expense with the help of independent experts, but is this true? Was the animal really able to be cloned? Fake science works in a completely different way. Recently elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences, [Oleg] Epstein, in order to defend his doctoral dissertation, specially edited an additional issue of the journal “Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine.” There he published 99 of his articles - in one issue under his own editorship! This is how pseudoscience works. That is why we assert that the election of Epstein as a corresponding member is one of the greatest disgraces of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

— Maybe this is happening because conventional science cannot respond to modern demands and challenges of the time?

— Scientists are not absolute heroes at all. At the same time, science is not a national treasure, it is a universal human value. Sometimes it is easier to leave Russia and discover graphene there than to do it here. In addition, it will even be easier to commercialize your discovery at some university in Uppsala. It seems that here in Yekaterinburg there is a scientist who incorrectly commercialized something to China.

What is Medinsky's dissertation

— About the failed deprivation of the doctoral degree of the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky. In your opinion, is his doctorate in history a pseudoscience? And why didn’t your commission look into this matter?

— The Commission on Pseudoscience did not touch upon this topic, since it is an absolutely public organization under the Russian Academy of Sciences. In addition, quite respected historians have dealt with this topic, and it would be wrong for us to get involved in this. We all regard Medinsky as a scoundrel and his dissertation as an abomination. The people who did this proved exactly this. In the Urals, the discussion of his dissertation did not take place precisely because the Ministry of Education was afraid of the reaction of local scientists. In the end, the expert council of the Higher Attestation Commission, professional historians, admitted that this dissertation is an abomination. Only the ministry, through its authority, retained his degree. Of course, if the Urals had made their decision quickly and the ministry had not had time to withdraw the dissertation, the situation would have been different. But I think that making claims to the UrFU dissertation council for this is still an excessive demand.

— Has the wave of pseudo-dissertations in Russia discredited the very idea of ​​the existence of the Higher Attestation Commission and dissertation councils?

— The awarding of academic degrees is an organizational form. Each country has its own. Russia once copied its system from the German one. Now, it’s clear that something needs to be done about it. It is clear that there are people who believe that fire and brimstone should be poured on the Higher Attestation Commission for what happened. This is really all very disgusting and impossible to tolerate. My point of view is that all this needs to be corrected. First of all, clean expert and dissertation councils.

— Negative consequences for members of your commission to combat pseudoscience?

— Homeopaths, who “spitted blood” after our memorandum, followed this path. One of the commission members lost his job immediately after the release of the memorandum. He was fired by the director of his own institute, who previously, working as a head in the Ministry of Health, allowed homeopathy.

About Kashpirovsky, the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in modern society and McDonald's

— How do you feel about Kashpirovsky?

“I was one of those people who, under Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, watched all this on TV. My wife even tried to charge a jar of water. In this sense, Kashpirovsky was a completely successful manipulator. And the behavior of the television crew was the way it should be among bloodsuckers: if you can film something for advertising that everyone will watch, then why not film it?

—Can it be ordinary person understand that he is being deceived and that there is a pseudo-healer in front of him?

Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences about the synthetic world in which a person of the 21st century lives

- Impossible, they will deceive you anyway. In 1993, I worked in Saratov on a small oncology program. There I came across a case where a woman diagnosed with breast cancer disappeared for six months and returned only when her disease was guaranteed to be incurable. It turned out that all these six months she had been correcting her biofield. I went to see this healer. He worked in an old house that once housed a Saratov brothel. A significant proportion of this man's patients were women. Among other things, he treated urolithiasis. He convinced his patients to wash their own feces. Allegedly, if they find pebbles there, then the treatment is effective. The only problem is that with this disease, almost everyone has stones. They come out and accumulate again. What I mean is that deception can be very effective.

The head of the newly formed Ministry of Science and Education, Mikhail Kotyukov, announced the dissolution of the RAS commission that was fighting pseudoscience.

A source at the academy said that the reason was a clash between opposing scientific clans and a conflict with delegates of the Russian Orthodox Church at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The liquidation of the commission was also facilitated by the lobby of homeopaths and pressure from the vice-president of the academy, Nikola Ostrov, who has a scientific degree in alchemy.

The minister's decision aroused warm support from the National Council on Homeopathy and the Sirius astrological community.

“It’s high time to move away from outdated approaches to science. Russia is now under sanctions and needs more than ever scientific knowledge. And we all: theologians, astrologers, alchemists, homeopaths and philosophers, are ready to provide it,” theologian Yakov Kramer approved the minister’s decision.

“The issue of holding a comradely trial of the former members of the commission is now being decided. Nothing special, just explain to them the harmfulness and fallacy of their views. If they do not persist, of course,” the theologian added.