Industrial espionage and the acquisition of scientific inventions and technical secrets from the West were always the primary objectives of KGB and GRU officers operating in the West. The development of the military-industrial complex and, ultimately, the military might of the USSR depended on success in this area. Military-political information, and especially propaganda, were of secondary importance. Certainly important, but not to the same extent. Recruitment of Western scientists was a significant component of this activity and sometimes yielded tremendous successes. Among the most famous was the theft of American atomic secrets in the 1940s.
The disappearance of the Iron Curtain after the collapse of the USSR—while the Soviet secret services retained their previous missions in the new Russia—opened up new and vast opportunities for them, including in terms of operational methods. One of the most popular methods of cultivating Soviet émigrés was the creation of pseudo-public organisations aimed at reaching a particular target group, including scientists.
In recent decades, a large émigré community has grown abroad, including scientists who have made their careers in the West. Consequently, opportunities for penetration into Western scientific circles, including in the fields of high technology and military technology, have also increased significantly.
In October 2017, the World Festival of Youth and Students, a purely propaganda event, took place in Sochi. Speaking at the festival's opening, Putin announced his intention to attract émigré scientists, especially those who had already achieved professional success, to work in Russia: ‘We'll think about this; we have some ideas.’ ‘I may sound harsh, but Russia is interested in the return of those who have truly achieved success and can effectively collaborate here.’ He added that ‘the mega-grant programme will be extended in the country.’ Who better than Putin to know that scientists working simultaneously in the West and in Russia are ideal sources of information? Such a possibility was unimaginable in Soviet times.
The programme to attract migrant scientists to Russia with the help of large grants has indeed been running for several years and is directly connected to one very interesting émigré organisation.
The International Association of Russian-Speaking Academic Science Association (RASA) was founded at the First International Seminar of Former Soviet Scientists in France in 2008. The Association brings together researchers from the former Soviet Union now working outside the Russian Federation. The Association also includes engineers and entrepreneurs working in high-tech fields, as well as students, graduate students, and postdocs studying outside the Russian Federation.
Officially, RASA is a ‘non-profit, non-governmental organisation for developing connections between Russian-speaking scientists abroad.’ In fact, the creation of RASA was initiated by the Russian government, which, by all indications, is also funding it.
It was precisely in 2008 that the Russian Ministry of Science and Education announced ‘Event 1.5.’ Its goal was ‘to interact with Russian scientists working abroad, on a permanent and temporary basis, to secure their place in Russian science and education, and to utilize their experience, skills, and knowledge for the development of the domestic scientific system.’ The plan was to invite foreign scientists of Russian (Soviet) origin to work in Russia to manage scientific projects under very favourable conditions.
‘An expert committee will select the top 100 projects, each of which will receive funding of up to two million rubles per year. The project manager's team will include at least one young PhD candidate, one graduate student, and two students. The project manager will be required to spend a total of two months per year in Russia; their salary will amount to no more than half of the project's total payroll. All projects are eligible for two years of state funding.’
The Russian government's decree of July 28, 2008, approved the federal target programme ‘Scientific and Academic Personnel for Innovative Russia’ for 2009–2013, which included ‘Measure 1.5’—‘Conducting Scientific Research by Teams Led by Invited Researchers.’ Three months later, the ‘International Association of Russian-Speaking Scientists’ (RASA) was founded in Paris.
The Association consists of three sections: American, European, and Asian (which was established only in 2015). Its activities are organised by the International Coordinating Council, which includes representatives of all sections and the RASA President. The following professors have served as RASA Presidents over the years: Vyacheslav Safarov (France, 2008–2010), Boris Chichkov (Germany, 2011–2013), Vladimir Shiltsev (USA, 2014–2016), Igor Efimov (USA, 2016–2018), and Alexander Kabanov (present). ‘The ISS also currently includes Nikolai Vasiliev (President of RASA-USA), Maria Dubenskaya (President of RASA-Europe), Leonid Krivitsky (President of RASA-Asia), Elena Atochina-Wasserman (USA), Larisa Vasilets (Germany), Andrey Zaikin (Germany), Alexander Kabanov (USA), Boris Lukyanchuk (Singapore), Vyacheslav Safarov (France) and Gleb Sukhorukov (Great Britain).’
RASA's activities appear rather one-sided. In the West, it hosts conferences, educational lectures, and promotes the achievements of Russian science. In Russia, RASA is integrated into the work of government and state organisations: it conducts expert reviews of projects by the Ministry of Education and Science, directly participates in the ‘Personnel 1.5’ programme, and so on. Since 2014, RASA centres with laboratories have been established at universities in St. Petersburg, Tomsk, and Kazan.
It's striking that the International Association of Russian-Speaking Scientists consists almost exclusively of representatives of the exact and natural sciences—chemists, physicists, biologists, and so on. There are no humanities scholars at all, as they don't fall under the Ministry of Education and Science's ‘1.5’ programme. If we ignore other circumstances and consider RASA a public organisation made up of volunteers (as it officially is), the most odd thing is the very existence of such an association. People working seriously in various fields of science are not inclined to unite in international societies based on ethnicity. Simply because they lack common interests.
Russian cultural societies exist in abundance, but they function quite differently. They are created with purely cultural goals. International scientific societies also exist in abundance, but they are not ethnically based. Their members are united by purely scientific interests. There are no common scientific interests, and the formal principle of unification is the native Russian language and a past Soviet (Russian) education.
Thus, such a strange association could not have arisen on its own. And even less could it have organised annual conferences in different countries. It didn't arise on its own. It's perfectly clear that RASA is funded by the Russian government and functions as a state organisation serving the interests of the Russian government. And membership in such an organisation comes with perks, such as Russian grants and direct funding for travel and conferences.
Tracing RASA's contacts with Russian government organisations and intelligence agencies is fairly straightforward.
The ‘First International Seminar of Former Soviet Scientists’ was organised in 2008 by Parisian professor Vyacheslav Safarov on the island of Porquerolles in the Mediterranean. The seminar was attended by Andrei Fursenko, the Russian Minister of Education and later aide to the Russian President. Safarov allegedly met Fursenko by chance at the Munich airport and invited his former colleague from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology to the seminar. At this meeting, RASA was established as two branches – European and American.
In 2009, the RASA conference with 42 speakers took place in Corsica, in a holiday village belonging to the French Armed Forces.
A group of high-ranking Russian officials was present: Sergei Kalyuzhny, a member of the RUSNANO board; Leonid Gozman, Director of RUSNANO Humanitarian Programs; Sergei Ivanets, Director of the Department of Strategy and Promising Projects in Education and Science of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation; and Igor Morozov, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for the CIS, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo).
The last two, Igor Morozov and Sergei Ivanets, are high-ranking intelligence officers who oversee work among emigrants and scientific and technical espionage.
In 2011, the RASA conference was held in Kazan with the participation of the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, RUSNANO, Rossotrudnichestvo, the Russkiy Mir Foundation, and other Russian organisations. Minister Fursenko spoke there about a mega-grant competition worth 150 million rubles, intended ‘to invite leading scientists to Russian universities.’
In June 2014, one of RASA's organisers, German professor Boris Chichkov, was received in Moscow by the head of Rossotrudnichestvo, Konstantin Kosachev, who stated that his agency was interested in developing relations with RASA.
In November 2014, the RASA conference, which attracted approximately 100 participants, was held in Boston, USA. It was opened by Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak, and various Russian organisations participated in the conference, including the Coordinating Council of Organisations of Russian Compatriots in the USA (CCORS).
In 2015, the new Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Livanov, met with RASA representatives in Los Angeles.
In 2015, the RASA seminar was organised in Berlin by the Russian House of Science and Culture (RDNC) with the support of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. It was attended by the Russian Embassy's consul for science and culture, as well as representatives of various German organisations and agencies—the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the German Scientific Society (DFG), the German Institute of Materials (BAM), and representatives of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Culture of the Federal State of Brandenburg. In 2015, the RASA conference in Washington, D.C., was organised on the Russian side by the Russian Embassy, Rossotrudnichestvo, and the Ministry of Education and Science.
In July 2015, with the support of Gazprom, the first RASA conference was held in Singapore, with the Russian Ambassador delivering the opening remarks. The Asia-Pacific Chapter of RASA was established at this conference. Former RASA President Boris Chichkov (Germany) spoke at the conference.
In the same July 2015, a conference was held in St. Petersburg, which was opened by another former RASA president, Vyacheslav Safarov (France).
In addition to the Russian Consul General in San Francisco and the Russian Ambassador to the United States, the Minister of Education and Science, and representatives of Skolkovo, Roscosmos, and Rossotrudnichestvo took part in the RASA American Chapter conference in Los Angeles in November 2016.
In February 2016, the RASA Council meeting was held in Berlin at the Russian House of Science and Technology. Representatives of Rossotrudnichestvo, the Russian Trade Mission to Germany, and the Embassy's Science and Technology Counselor spoke at the meeting.
Functionaries of Rossotrudnichestvo, the Russkiy Mir, international departments of secret military concerns such as ROSATOM and ROSCOSMOS, the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots, consular and embassy officials of the Russian Federation working with emigrants – these are all representatives of various state security agencies, carrying out specific state tasks.
The chronology of RASA's activities shows how they have been growing as Russia has become internationally isolated since the seizure of Crimea.
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In addition to the association's regular members, two active members of the RASA Coordinating Council live in Germany: Boris Chichkov and Larisa Vasilets.
Professor Boris Chichkov is the head of the Department of Nanotechnology at the Laser Centre Hannover. Since 2009, he has been the head of the Department of Nanoengineering and a W3 Professor at Leibniz University Hannover. Since 2010, Chichkov has also been a leading scientist at the Laser Nanotechnology Laboratory at the Institute for Laser and Information Technology Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Doctor of Biological Sciences Larisa Vasilets is the director of the consulting agency for the promotion of innovations and advanced training, ERNOVIA International Consulting & Training (Germany).
The company ‘offers a comprehensive range of services to attract European funding and promote innovative technology companies in the German-speaking EU,’ as well as ‘trainings and advanced training seminars for managers and business executives, project managers, innovative technology developers, and university administrators and professors.’ All of Vasilets' clients are in Russia.
It is safe to assume that RASA's leadership has been working in the interests of the Russian government from the very beginning, and that rank-and-file members are, at a minimum, potential targets for recruitment.