The head of the Kurchatov Institute called the dismissal of the Russians from CERN a gift

The return to Russia of scientists with whom the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) will end cooperation will be a gift for the country. This was stated by the head of the National Research Center “Kurchatovsky Institute” Mikhail Kovalchuk in a conversation with the state agency TASS.

According to Kovalchuk, some of the organization’s specialists are employees of the Kurchatov Institute.

“In fact, the return of these people, trained by us, educated by us, ideologically and scientifically, is a gift for us,” – quotes the head of the TASS Institute.

Earlier today, the RIA Novosti agency, citing an official representative of CERN, reported that the organization will terminate cooperation with approximately 500 Russian specialists. The agreement will cease to be effective on November 30.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia called CERN’s decision to suspend cooperation politicized and completely unacceptable.

• CERN – the world’s largest high-energy physics laboratory – was established in 1953. The headquarters of the organization is located in Switzerland. Most of the 500 Russians collaborating with CERN did not live in the country.
• In March 2022, CERN suspended observer status for Russia because of the war. Russia stopped paying contributions to the organization’s budget, could not vote in the CERN council. Moscow could have participated in research projects both financially and with equipment, but it did not.
• On March 27 last year, CERN decided to list Russian and Belarusian scientists without affiliation with the institutes of both countries.
• The director of the Kurchatov Institute is a friend of President Vladimir Putin. Last fall, Mikhail Kovalchuk proposed to test nuclear weapons on Novaya Zemlya, where explosions were carried out in Soviet times.