Journalists from T-Invariant* studied the scientometric indicators of all candidates for members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who registered for the 2025 elections, on the website of the scientific electronic library elibrary. It turned out that the candidate in the field of "mining sciences" Nikolai Azarov, the Prime Minister of Ukraine under Yanukovych, has no scientific publications, and his Hirsch index (an indicator of the number of scientific works and their citations) is zero. It was also not possible to find information about him in the Scopus database
Azarov was a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), from which he was excluded in 2022.
Another candidate — the wife of Deputy Prime Minister Manturov, Natalia Manturova — is running for corresponding member in the department of medical sciences (field of "plastic surgery"). According to the publication, she has a Hirsch index of 8 and 10 according to Scopus.
The founder of the Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky, who is under EU sanctions, periodically contesting their extension in court, also hopes to become a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His Hirsch index is 5, and according to Scopus — 1. At the same time, he ranks 42nd on the list of Russian billionaires by Forbes with a fortune of $3.3 billion.
* Recognized as a "foreign agent" in Russia.