Who took over Ukraine's national academy of sciences in October 2020?
A look back at the leadership change at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, set against a regional diplomatic backdrop.
Who was chosen to lead the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine on 7 October 2020? The academy elected a new president: Anatolii Zahorodnii, a professor and the director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics, became its head.
The choice of a working scientist who already ran a research institute placed leadership of the academy in the hands of someone from within its own research community. That is the extent of what was reported on the day about the vote itself.
The regional context was dominated by foreign policy. On 2 October 2020, the European Council agreed on sanctions against Belarus, in connection with the international reaction to the Belarusian presidential election and the protests that followed. Cyprus lifted its opposition to the measure once the Council also agreed on a warning to Turkey.
The two developments were unrelated. One concerned the internal governance of a national scientific institution in Kyiv; the other was a decision by EU members on sanctions and on relations with Turkey. Together they show the range of institutional decisions being made in the region in the first week of October 2020.
