Russian Scientists Told to Submit Papers to Security Service

A biology institute at one of Russia’s leading universities is requiring scientists to get their papers approved by the federal security service before submitting them to conferences or journals, Nature reported. Nature cites minutes from a meeting at the A. N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology at Lomonosov Moscow State University instructing scientists on how to comply with a recently amended state secrets law. The Russian government says the law is not intended to interfere with the publication of basic, nonmilitary research, but scientists believe that the Moscow State rule requiring manuscript approval is not unique.