Statement by the ALLEA Board on the Suspension of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
The Board of ALLEA has released a statement on the suspension of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. The statement reads:
In light of the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine initiated by the Russian government and supported by the Belarusian government, ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, has decided to suspend the membership of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.
ALLEA restates the European Academies’ commitment to academic freedom and human rights and hopes that efforts to defend democracy and the rule of law will eventually prevail. Conscious of its duty to uphold these fundamental values and giving practical expression to the moral outrage of the academic community, the ALLEA Board decided to enact this extraordinary measure, in line with international sanctions against institutions in the two states.
The Board is aware that this step might have an unintended impact on individual scientists and international scientific collaboration, but it concludes that the ability of these academies to act autonomously and independently from their governments has come into question – and therefore warrants this decision targeting only the institutional level. This suspension will be reconsidered by ALLEA member academies in their upcoming General Assembly on 11 May 2022.
The full statement is available here. ALLEA released an initial statement in support of Ukraine, its citizens and academics on 25 February. A list of resources, including funding and hosting tools aimed at helping Ukrainian scientists, can be found on this webpage.