The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine liquidated the Institute of World Economy and International Relations

Last Friday they liquidated the Institute of World Economy and International Relations that had been created in 1991 and dealt with the economic and political researches and developed the directions for the economic and foreign policy development of Ukraine. A total of 96 employees of the Institute, including 2 academicians, 24 doctors, and 45 candidates were familiarized with the corresponding act by the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The document of October 30 reads that the inspection of the activity of the Institute that lasted from August 6 till August 28 found out that “the scientific and organizational activity of the Institute departments in their main research directions had been stopped and revealed numerous violations of the budget and financial activity.”

“The activity of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations will be stopped. The liquidation committee has been created and the employees have been warned about the dismissal in the manner prescribed by the laws,” reads the act by the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Unlike their colleagues from the Institute of Archeography and Institute of Eastern Studies who managed at least to postpone the liquidation of their institutes, the Institute of World Economy did not organize any protests or write any collective letters. That is why its liquidation went unnoticed. However, in general, this year the institute was actively presented in the media space due to a number of scandals. The loudest one happened this August during the inspection of the activity of the Institute by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Back then the presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine appointed a new director of the Institute having dismissed the then acting director Natalia Hrushchynska. The reason is that, according to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the inspection revealed numerous financial violations. Then the members of the commission conceded that it was done deliberately in order to make the Institute bankrupt and sell its premises and property for debts. In her turn Hrushchynska claimed that the premises were occupied in a raider attack and she was taken hostage. Was the decision of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to liquidate the Institute that was having problems during the past year unexpected for its employees?

“Possible changes and even possible liquidation of the Institute were discussed for several months. At the beginning of the year different scenarios of Institute reorganization in order to preserve its scientific potential were discussed. So it was not absolutely unexpected: the moods in the institute were mainly pessimistic for many months. Another thing is that there was no any reliable information about the decisions prepared and made till the last day. That is why the situation apparently stabilized during the last month,” senior scientist of the Institute of World Economy and Foreign Relations Oleksandr SUSHKO told The Day. “There were the inspections that mainly concerned the financial discipline. However, these were the abuses of the previous management dismissed in January of this year. Another question is the suspension of scientific and organizational work. This wording appeared for the first time in the act about liquidation and was never used before in the inspection data.” The expert concedes that the premises of the Institute played its role in the conflicts.

“This place is very prestigious and the premises are very expensive. Obviously, the developments of the past years that resulted in the degradation of the Institute were partly motivated by selling the premises. It is absolutely clear,” Sushko said.

According to the expert, the decision about the liquidation does not look balanced and correct as “it is absolutely unclear, who is going to do researches in these directions without which it is difficult to imagine the academic environment of a modern European country.” Besides, the liquidation procedure does not provide for automatic employment of the scientists to other institutions. When asked why the institute did not uphold its right to exist as it was the case with the Institute of Archeography and the Institute of Eastern Studies, Sushko replied: “Due to the developments of the past years the team of the institute as a group of people able to act together broke up. At a critical moment it turned out that there is no team able to put common efforts to protect their institute.”