Centre for Civic Education (CCE) once again points to the links between the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (MASA) and academies closely connected to regimes participating in the aggression against Ukraine, as well as to disinformation in this institution’s responses to an international media outlet regarding this issue.
Although CANU claims that, since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, it has not engaged in any institutional or programme cooperation with institutions from Russia and Belarus, the Yearbooks for 2022, 2023, and 2024 state that CANU will continue cooperation with academies and academic bodies with which it has signed agreements. Among these, in all of the mentioned yearbooks, are the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. As the only planned activity, MASA lists a project marking the 200th anniversary of Tolstoy’s birth, scheduled for 2028, “in the hope that by then the war conflicts will have ended”. However, CANU’s Work Programme for 2026 indicates that the beginning of this two-year project is already planned for 2026, meaning that part of it will be implemented during the ongoing aggression against Ukraine.
CANU failed to inform the public that participation of its representative is planned for September this year at a session of the Council of the International Association of Academies of Sciences, organised by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Its head, as well as the head of this association, is Vladimir Karanik, an official of Alexander Lukashenko regime, who is under sanctions by the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Canada due to his role in suppressing opposition protests. According to available information, the President of MASA, Ljubiša Stanković, participated online in one of these sessions, held in a hybrid format – online and in Minsk, at which Karanik was unanimously elected President.
At a session of this association in Moscow in September 2024, academician Dragan Vukčević was present, with the Russian Academy of Sciences as the host. According to information from CANU’s 2024 Yearbook, which CANU has shared with CCE, Vukčević used this gathering to meet with members of the Russian Academy of Sciences and to congratulate them on the 300th anniversary of the institution.
Furthermore, as early as 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine had fully begun, academician Svjetlana Terzić participated as a lecturer at an international school organised by the International Mathematical Institute “Leonhard Euler” in Saint Petersburg. This institute is part of the network of institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, both financially and organisationally linked to it. In the same year, academician Predrag Miranović participated online in the 35th session of the Council of the International Association of Academies of Sciences, headquartered at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in Minsk, held in a hybrid format – online, in Moscow, and in Saint Petersburg. The 2022 Yearbook also contains information that the Presidency of MASA was informed about a letter from the Russian Academy of Sciences addressed to the President of the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), stating that “the Russian Academy of Sciences had decided to withdraw its membership from ALLEA”, although the reasons for this decision are not specified. Even in the statement condemning the aggression against Ukraine, signed by the CANU Presidency earlier that year, it is not stated who attacked Ukraine and violated its territorial integrity.
The Yearbook for 2023, which is not publicly available, also notes that Terzić once again visited Russia, attending a conference in Sochi organised by the Sirius Mathematical Centre, a project initiated by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. It was precisely at this centre that, in 2019, Putin and Lukashenko held a meeting on bilateral cooperation between Russia and Belarus in the fields of culture, science, and sport.
Additionally, from 2022 to 2024, while publicly claiming it had not cooperated with the Russian Academy of Sciences, MASA organised three annual OPTIMA conferences in Petrovac together with Russians.
The Yearbooks for 2023 and 2024 also mention the implementation of a project led by academician Svetlana Terzić in cooperation with prof. dr Victor Buchstaber from the Steklov Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, prof. dr Vladimir Dragović from the University of Dallas, and MSc Vladimir Ivanović, a teaching associate and PhD candidate at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. The project is stated to have been “largely realised through joint work with prof. dr Viktor Buchstaber”, and the work of these two academics was published in the Mathematical Collection of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Particularly noteworthy are the public explanations as to why MASA has not developed cooperation with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in recent years. CANU’s claim that “Ukraine operates in circumstances that almost entirely prevent any international cooperation” is contradicted by the 2025 Activity Report of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. This report, spanning 608 pages, contains information on around 1,120 fundamental research projects and 500 applied research projects, 14,663 papers of which 5,823 were published abroad, 224 monographs, and more than 1,800 reports. During the past year, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine participated in European Union research projects, scientific projects within NATO, as well as projects through the UNESCO network, and also signed a number of new agreements with international partners. All of this demonstrates the resilience of the Ukrainian scientific community during the aggression against their country, but also the willingness of MASA representatives to provide inaccurate information to the public.
The CCE once again calls on CANU to reconsider its relationship with institutions connected to regimes participating in the aggression against Ukraine and, in line with its publicly expressed positions, to provide unequivocal support to the Ukrainian scientific community.
The CCE also calls on the highest public officials of the Government of Montenegro to clearly take a position on this issue, particularly bearing in mind the potential impact of these CANU activities on Montenegro’s formally aligned foreign policy position with the European Union regarding Russia.
Sara Čabarkapa, Active Citizenship Programme Coordinator