moscow

About 2,000 scientists went on strike in Vladivostok last week because of the government's non-payment of wages. The strike, by members of the Far Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), formed part of a nationwide series of demonstrations.

The scientists, who blocked several major roads in the region, were also making political demands. They called for a change to the Russian president and cabinet, on the grounds that they had shown themselves to be unable to support Russian science.

“Our strike is an act of despair,” said Georgyi Elyakov, a vice-president of the RAS and president of its local branch. “We have no other way to draw attention to the problems of science in the region. Previously this was one of the best scientifically productive parts of the country, with its own scientific fleet, perfectly equipped laboratories and well-financed expeditions. Now all this is gone.”

The day after the strike, more than 100,000 people — including 12,000 in Moscow alone — took part in protests against education reforms proposed by the government. As well as proposing to reduce the number of lecturers by 20 per cent and the number of students by 15 per cent, the new minister of education, Alexander Tikhonov, has drawn up a plan to give state-owned universities greater autonomy.

Meeting representatives of the academics' and scientists' trade union, Oleg Sysoev, the vice prime minister, argued that that the reforms “will draw resources from financial and other structures to the education system; at the same time the state will control the situation”.

But the Russian Union of University Rectors says that it does not believe in the state's ability “to control the situation” while it is unable to support the universities financially. In 1997, education received only 2 per cent of the total state budget, and it is unlikely that this will increase in 1998.

“The other reason for our protest is the debt of 10 billion new roubles (US$1.6 billion) that the state owes to education workers,” said Nina Merkulova, an official of the central committee of the academics' and scientists' trade union. “We have not received our salaries for many months.”

Russia's prime minister, Sergei Kirienko, has decided to defer a discussion of the reforms that was to have taken place at a cabinet meeting next month.