News
May 26, 2025
Election Campaign for the Director General of KarRC RAS Officially Begins

The Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education has approved the candidates for the position of Director General of the Karelian Research Centre RAS, previously nominated by KarRC RAS Learned Council. The candidates are the current acting Director General Olga Bakhmet, Deputy Director General Yuri Zaika, and Director of the Forest Research Institute KarRC RAS Alexander Kryshen. At an extraordinary meeting on 26 May, KarRC RAS Learned Council approved the composition of the electoral commission, which will organize the election process.
The extraordinary meeting of the KarRC RAS Learned Council was convened following the approval of the candidates for the position of Director General by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The election is being held due to the expiration of the current Director General's contract. According to the Charter of KarRC RAS, which governs the management of the Centre, the ministry signs a five-year employment contract with the Director General.

Three candidates are vying for the position: the current acting Director General of KarRC RAS Olga Bakhmet, Deputy Director General Yuri Zaika, and Director of the Forest Research Institute KarRC RAS Alexander Kryshen.


The audience

The primary agenda item of the extraordinary meeting was the approval of the electoral commission. It was decided by a majority vote that the commission would include deputy heads of the Centre's scientific divisions who had not formally participated in the nomination of candidates. The commission will be chaired by Pavel Druzhinin, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Economics KarRC RAS, with Natalya Fokina, KarRC RAS Secretary for Science, as deputy chairperson, and Elena Perman, Head of the HR Department, as secretary.

The electoral commission is tasked with organizing the election process: setting the timeline and procedures for the main and early voting (provisions for the latter are made in the summer period due to vacations and the field season), scheduling meetings between candidates and voters, and addressing other technical matters. According to the officially stipulated timeframe, the election must be held before 18 June.


Chairman of the electoral commission — Pavel Druzhinin, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Economics KarRC RAS

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