Scientists at the Primorsky Nature Reserve are being laid off: they were offered jobs as cleaners and mechanics.
The Lazovsky Nature Reserve in Primorsky Krai is eliminating its research department and laying off three scientists. At the end of the month, specialists Galina Salkina, Alexander Myslenkov, and Inna Voloshina received letters from the management of the reserve and the Call of the Tiger National Park (they are part of the same organization – editor's note) informing them that they can transfer to other positions – part-time cleaners earning 7,376 rubles and auto mechanics earning 14,752 rubles, an anonymous source told NeMoskva.
Three scientists were engaged Galina Salkina, a PhD candidate in biology, has been conducting research at the reserve for decades. She has authored over 60 scientific articles. She studied the Amur tiger.
The husband and wife team—Alexander Myslenkov, the reserve's deputy director for research, and Inna Voloshina, a leading researcher—have worked in the reserve for over 40 years. Alexander Myslenkov studied the Amur goral, writing two monographs on it, and has also published over 100 scientific papers. They have both presented their research in South Korea, India, Japan, Italy, and Spain.
Scientists will be laid off starting June 2. In their defense, 49 scientists from other nature reserves wrote a letter to the Ministry of Natural Resources in early May. They were outraged by the dissolution of the reserve's scientific department, which will be replaced by a "monitoring department." As one of the letter's signatories told NeMoskva, the ministry has not yet responded.
Vsevolod Stepanitsky, Chairman of the Council for Nature Conservation, I told In May, the publication "Regional Aspect" reported that the conflict in the reserve was connected with the independent position of researchers Salkina, Voloshina and Myslenkov.
According to Stepanitsky, "the director of the institution thus decided to get rid of opponents with their own opinions, including on environmental issues. He wants only his opinion."
With 2015 year Directs Vladimir Aramilev, the joint director of the Lazovsky Nature Reserve and the Call of the Tiger National Park. In 2013, at the initiative of Vladimir Putin, the Amur Tiger Center was established, which headed Aramilev's son, Sergei. The latter regularly accuses residents of Primorye of spreading fake news about tigers entering populated areas: he believes that this is how people trying to achieve Road construction and lighting in villages, while the opposition is playing up the issue of predators' release. He called residents' concerns and the killing of livestock and other animals "stuff."
In the photo: Alexander Myslenkov/Lazovsky Nature Reserve.
