Fursenko says foreign scientists want to keep Russian researchers at CERN

Foreign scientists were not in agreement with the exclusion of Russian specialists from projects of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Russian presidential aide Andrei Fursenko said on November 30.

"As far as I know, the scientific bloc was in favor of rejecting [the ban]," he told RIA Novosti on the margins of the 4th Congress of Young Scientists.

According to Fursenko, foreign researchers wanted to continue working within CERN with Russian colleagues, but such decisions are made at the level of government leaders.

During the vote, only one vote against such a measure was missing, the aide to the head of state specified. He noted that in this case the decision was made "under very strong pressure from Ukraine," and scientists understand it well.

"Within the next seven years, Russia will have the most powerful research infrastructure in the world"

Mikhail Kovalchuk, President of the Kurchatov Institute Research Center Mikhail Kovalchuk on how our country will react to the termination of scientific cooperation with CERN

Earlier, on November 8, the president of the Kurchatov Institute Research Center, Mikhail Kovalchuk, recalled that the decision was taken "under very strong pressure from Ukraine". Mikhail Kovalchuk recalled that the West began blocking Russian experts' access to CERN after the start of a special military operation. However, they received an invitation to work in the center on certain conditions, which scientists from the Russian Federation did not accept, Kovalchuk pointed out.

Before that, on September 21, the head of the "Kurchatov Institute" told "Izvestia" that CERN will face consequences because of the refusal to cooperate with Russia. According to his prediction, Russian scientists will be able to work at domestic facilities and create the most powerful research infrastructure in the world.

It became known in mid-September that CERN would send hundreds of scientists affiliated with Russian institutions at the end of November. It was reported that this will happen in case they do not move to scientific institutions of other countries. At the same time, work will continue with researchers from the Russian Federation under an agreement with the Dubna Institute.