Lukashenka threatens Palchyk: There should be no charlatans

They are to be “chopped down and rooted out mercilessly”.

There should be no quacks in the scientific community, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said as he appointed Henadzy Palchyk Chairman of the Higher Attestation Commission.

“You know what I want from scientists and you know why the VAK (the Higher Attestation Commission) changed subordination to report directly to the President. There should be no charlatans, they are to be chopped down and rooted out mercilessly,” the Belarusian ruler noted.

“Make sure that everything is fair and decent and put the Higher Attestation Commission to rights,” the head of state added.

“These are not mere words. These are my unbending fundamental convictions and I will always stick to them. The labour of a scholar is a catastrophically hard work,” the dictator said. “Thus, the requirements should be tougher. It might be better to abandon Soviet practices when the commission had a more lenient approach to applicants (“as long as a thesis is written, it should be defended”) in a bid to have more people with academic titles. It is not our way. It is okay if there are many people with academic titles if they deserve these titles. If not, let it be none of them at all.”

Lukashenka has also appointed Pyotr Kazakevich Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. “I really hope that you will be not only a great help to the Chairman of the NASB, but also the eyes of the President and will not let people do things they are not supposed to do,” he said, noting that unproductivity in science is unacceptable.