Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, accused of high treason, is running for membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the T-Invariant academic community said on April 2.
Azarov, who led the Ukrainian government under pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych between 2010 and 2014, is a candidate for the RAS membership in mining sciences. Despite this, Azarov has a zero Hirsch index, a key indicator of the quality of scientific activity.
The fugitive ex-official has no academic publications, T-Invariant said, citing eLibrary, a Russian scientific electronic library integrated with the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI).
Azarov was a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NANU) until June 2022, when he was expelled. The Scopus database, which tracks academic article citations, also has no publications by Azarov.
The Russian-born politician served as prime minister under Yanukovych's tenure before resigning amid the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014. He now resides in Russia and makes regular anti-Ukrainian statements and promotes pro-Kremlin narratives on Russian state propaganda channels.
In December 2022, Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation and the Prosecutor General's Office completed a pre-trial investigation into Yanukovych's and Azarov's high treason cases.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) pressed further treason charges against Azarov and his assistant in October 2023. Last January, the case was sent to court under the charges of "information activities" on Russia's behalf.
Katie Marie Davies
(Updated: )
