The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a major humanitarian crisis. At the time of this writing, March 19, 2022, more than 3 million Ukrainians, including 1 million children, have fled to neighboring countries to escape the war. The remaining population of about 40 million is under direct attack. They need our immediate support!
Russian citizens who oppose the war are subject to arrest and persecution; over two hundred thousand are estimated to have already left their country. Many citizens of Belarus have left their own country for similar reasons.
The war has inflicted immeasurable pain on the scholarly community in Ukraine and devastation on Russian and Belarusian academics.
Support displaced Ukrainian students and scholars
In addition to offering moral support to our Ukrainian colleagues, we strive to provide them with access to laboratories and research centers across the globe. Some members of the international academic community have offered to host Ukrainian colleagues in their research facilities. The Russian academic diaspora has joined this effort, but more should be done. By supporting the careers of displaced students and scholars, we can take a tangible part in promoting the rapid rebuilding of post-war Ukraine and mitigating the socio-economic impacts of this war.
Emergency funding is needed to enable participating laboratories and research centers across the EU, US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and other countries to provide on-site and remote training and job opportunities for displaced students and scholars from Ukraine. Some have been displaced, together with their dependents and close relatives, young and old, and we need immediate solutions to keep their families together. Concerted efforts should be made without delay to create short and long-term fellowships and to provide visa support, rapid immigration procedures, and travel assistance.
Support Russian and Belarusian students and scholars
We need to distinguish between the sanctions on the Russian government and how we treat Russian students and scholars who oppose the war. The war in Ukraine is Putin’s war, not theirs. People in the sciences and the humanities have consistently opposed Putin’s repressive regime in multiple ways since long before the current events and many have taken a brave stance against the war. Anti-war protesters in Russia, mostly young professionals, are being arrested and can be imprisoned for up to 15 years under a recently enacted Russian law.
With the growing suppression of free speech in Russia and the impact of Western sanctions, anti-war Russian students and scholars are in double jeopardy. The same applies to Belarusian scholars suffering under the Lukashenko regime.
Some of these scholars remain in their countries; others have chosen to flee. We strongly encourage all our colleagues to keep their individual connections to Russian and Belarusian professionals who oppose the war but cannot leave the country for various reasons. As for those fleeing Russia and Belarus in fear of state persecution, they qualify for refugee status and need support from academe and governments.
We call on the international academic community to commit our time and effort to support Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarussian scholars affected by this war. Together we must help those in need to continue their work and education and ultimately build a better future for their countries and humankind.
If you want to support the call made on behalf of the Russian-speaking academic diaspora, even if you do not speak Russian, you can add your signature using the google form: https://forms.gle/Bo2Ppa9Lgrr96sQf8.
Natalia Berloff, mathematician, University of Cambridge, UK
Michail Bezrodnyj, philologist, University of Heidelberg, Germany
Alexandra Boltasseva, electrical engineer, Purdue University, USA
Mark Borodovsky, computational biologist, Georgia Tech, USA
Tatiana Bronich, chemist, Northeastern University, USA
Dmitry Bykov, writer, Cornell University, USA
Maria Chekhova, physicist, Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Germany
Leonid Chernomordik, biologist, National Institutes of Health, USA
Yury Chernoff, biologist, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Konstantin Chumakov, Director, Global Virus Network Center of Excellence, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, USA
Alexander Dizhoor, neuroscientist, Salus University, USA
Irina Dubinina, slavic scholar, Brandeis University, USA
Igor Efimov, biophysicist, George Washington University, USA
Grigori Enikolopov, neurobiologist, Stony Brook University, USA
Sergei Erofeev, sociologist, Rutgers University, USA, Polish Institute of Advanced Studies, Poland
Pavel Etingof, mathematician, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Alexander Etkind, historian, European University, Italy
Mikhail Epstein, cultural scholar, Emory University, USA
Valery Fokin, chemist, University of Southern California, USA
Andre Geim, physicist, University of Manchester, UK
Vadim Gladyshev, biochemist, Harvard University, USA
Yury Gogotsi, materials scientist, Drexel University, USA
Dmitry Gordenin, geneticist, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH
Andrei Gudkov, oncology researcher, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, USA
Sergei Guriev, economist, Sciences Po, Paris, France
Olga Gursky, biophysicist, Boston University School of Medicine, USA
Oleg Itskhoki, economist, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Misha Ivanov, physicist, Max-Born Institute and Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
Alexander Kabanov, chemist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Mikhail Kats, applied physicist, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Mikhail Katsnelson, physicist, Radboud University, Netherlands
Eugene Koonin, biologist, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, USA
Dmitry Korkin, computational biologist, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA
Yury Korolev, mathematician, University of Cambridge, UK
Igor Kramnik, immunologist, Boston University, USA
Alex Krasnok, physicist, Florida International University, USA
Anna Krichevsky, neurobiologist, Harvard University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, USA
Andrei Linde, physicist, Stanford University, USA
Mark Lipovetsky, philologist, Columbia University, USA
Natalia Litchinitser, physicist, Duke University, USA
Sergei Maslov, computational and systems biologist, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Olga Matich, philologist, University of California Berkeley, USA
Ruslan Medzhitov, immunologist, Yale University, USA
Igor Mel’čuk, linguist, Universite Quebec a Montreal, Canada
Slava Mukhanov, physicist, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
Dmitry Murzin, chemical engineer, Abo Akademi University, Finland
Mikhail Nikiforov, molecular biologist, Duke University, USA
Konstantin Novoselov, physicist, National University of Singapore, USA
Dmitri Orlov, aerospace engineer, University of California San Diego, USA
Vadim Paperny, artist, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Alexej Pashkin, physicist, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany
Pavel Pevzner, computational biologist, University of California, San Diego, USA
Maria Polinsky, linguist, University of Maryland, USA
Natalia Rapoport, chemist, University of Utah, USA
Irina Rish, computer scientist, University of Montreal, and Mila – Quebec AI Institute, Canada
Alexander Rudensky, immunologist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, USA
Roald Sagdeev, physicist, University of Maryland, USA
Irina Sekerina, cognitive scientist, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
Denis Seletskiy, physicist, Polytechnique Montréal, Canada
Vladimir Shalaev, physicist, Purdue University, USA
Dmitri N. Shalin, sociologist, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
Stanislav Shvabrin, slavist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Olga Smirnova, physicist, Max-Born Institute and Technical University, Berlin, Germany
Konstantin Sonin, economist, University of Chicago, USA
Svetlana Sukhishvili, materials scientist, Texas A&M University, USA
Shamil Sunyaev, geneticist, Harvard University, USA
Tatiana Tatarinova, computational biologist, University of La Verne, USA
Vasily Temnov, physicist, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France
Dmitry Turchinovich, physicist, Bielefeld University, Germany
Lyubov Titova, physicist, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA
Alexander Tropsha, computational chemist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Vitaly Vanchurin, physicist, National Institutes of Health, USA
Peter Vorobieff, mechanical engineer, applied mathematician, University of New Mexico, USA
Tatiana Yankelevich Bonner, former director, Sakharov Program on Human Rights, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, USA
Efim Zelmanov, mathematician, University of California, San Diego, USA
Ariel Zhitnitsky, physicist, University of British Columbia, Canada
Alexander Zholkovsky, philologist, University of Southern California, USA
Andrei Zorin, Cultural Historian, University of Oxford, UK
All signatories signed as private individuals
A partial list of prior statements of Russian-speaking scholars against the war in Ukraine
● An open letter of Russian scientists and science journalists against the war in Ukraine (published 02/24/2022, over 8000 signatories)
https://t-invariant.org/2022/02/we-are-against-war/
● Stop the war! A declaration of the Russian-speaking academic diaspora (published 02/25/2022, over 500 signatories) https://docs.google.com/document/d/16kHjs3nwWM4Qb_c0OAZbNb6cH74cwaWDvuOzi7gzwXs/mobilebasic
● Community of the Moscow State University against the war (over 7000 alumni, students & faculty signatories, names now hidden because of retaliation) https://msualumniagainstwar.notion.site/0378ab0a0719486181781e8e2b360180
● An open letter from students-members of the list “Talents of Russia” of the Presidential Fund “Talent and Success” to the President of the Russian Federation V. V. Putin https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1kH4Z9KhsGSax1Xa8IQ2rB5uqCrp_h7t63W1_ZwLoKUc/mobilebasic
● Health Scientists From the Former USSR Working in the United Stated Call to Stop Russia’s Criminal War Against Ukraine https://sciprotest.com/
24.03.2022