At the end of May 2025, when the academic career of the former head of the Ukrainian government took off rapidly, the media reported that the high title was awarded to a politician who had not published a single scientific article or monograph in his life. We have checked the correctness of this information.
On May 30, Russian-language media noticed that the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN) had elected Nikolai Azarov, the former prime minister of Ukraine who left the country after Euromaidan, as its new academician. Some news reports emphasized that Azarov does not have a single scientific publication and that for the first time in the history of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a person with zero Hirsch index — a scientometric characteristic showing the productivity and citation of scientists. On this basis, many media outlets assessed the election as purely political.
Wrote about this The Moscow Times, as well as large Ukrainian media, including UNIAN, "Focus", New Voice And "Channel 24" Telegram channel post "Insider UA” on this topic at the time of writing the analysis received 508,000 views.
May 28–30 in Moscow took place general meeting members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, at which they were elected 84 academicians (out of 86 declared) and 165 corresponding members RAS. Only linguists Elena Berezovich and Fyodor Uspensky were not approved for the new title in 2022 signatories letter against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. From the Department of Earth Sciences, Mykola Azarov, who headed the Ukrainian government in 2010–2014, became an academician with a specialty in mining sciences. After the Revolution of Dignity, he moved to Russia and fell under international sanctions. When Azarov became involved in a number of criminal cases in Ukraine, Interpol put him on the international wanted list, but in 2017 he and other former officials deleted from the list of this organization.
As early as April 2, some publications (in particular, The Insider And "New newspaper Europe") reported that Azarov, who does not have a single scientific publication, claims to be an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the department of Earth sciences. As at the end of May, many media outlets referred to data from T-Invariant, a media outlet created by scientists and science journalists who left Russia due to censorship and other restrictions.
In both cases, T-Invariant actually published publications on this topic in its Telegram channel: first paid attention for the possible election of Azarov as an academician, and later reported on the voting results at the meeting of RAS members. However, the publication’s posts did not say that the politician had no scientific publications. T-Invariant wrote that if elected, Azarov will become the first academician with a zero H-index according to the RSCI core. The Hirsch index itself is a universal metric of the productivity and relevance of scientists, based on the number of published works and their citations by other scientists. RSCI core — existing since 2015, a list of publications included in the Russian Science Citation Index and at the same time meeting increased criteria of scientific significance. Accordingly, the Hirsch index for the RSCI core, explained on elibrary.ru, shows links to the author’s publications from this subindex in other publications included in it. How writes Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Khokhlov, when assessing the demand for a particular Russian scientist, this indicator “provides a certain (but, of course, not absolute) protection from cheating due to publications in “junk” journals.”
When the expanded list of candidates for the title of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences was approved, on the website of the Scientific Electronic Library elibrary.ru published their scientometric characteristics. As T-Invariant correctly noted, Azarov’s H-index for the RSCI core is zero. And this is the only such example among 353 candidates in 2025.
However, even from this list it is clear that Azarov is almost 150 times quoted by the authors of other publications included in the core of the RSCI (some of them, however, are devoted not to geology, but to politics). The former Ukrainian prime minister also has six worksincluded in this subindex. All of them focus on mining, although co-authored and mostly published in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In total, the elibrary.ru database lists 80 works Azarov, and about fifty of them can be called specialized scientific publications or patents.
According to biographies on the website of Moscow State University, Azarov graduated from the Faculty of Geology of Moscow State University in 1971, and in 1985 he defended his doctorate dissertation on the topic “Mine seismic exploration of a coal seam.” According to the academic candidate's card, his main achievements include: include research in the development of theoretical and methodological foundations for the application of mine geophysics in complex mining and geological conditions of coal basins. It is also noted that he was the scientific supervisor of five candidates and two doctors of science. Judging by the chronology of publications, Azarov moved away from science at the turn of the 2000s and 2010s, when he was already actively involved in Ukrainian politics and held key positions in the government. And only in 2024, on the eve of his nomination to academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, his new one, written together with co-authors, appeared in the journal “Proceedings of RANIMI” article on the topic of the geology of one mine in the Donbass.
Thus, there is no reason to say that at the time of his election as an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Azarov had not published a single scientific work. This is an erroneous interpretation of the correct statement of the T-invariant publication about the politician’s zero H-index for the RSCI core. Moreover, back in April, when the excitement arose for the first time, at the RAS statedthat this index is an optional indicator for election to academicianship. Note that some publications have corrected their publications that initially contained an error, for example, The Moscow Times clarifiedthat Azarov has not published a single “authoritative” work.
Whether Azarov’s scientific achievements are sufficient to receive a high title is another question. One of the academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences, on condition of anonymity, told Verified that the nomination of the former Ukrainian prime minister was supported by his colleagues in the specialty, one of whom, an academician himself, called him his teacher. At the same time, our interlocutor is sure: “There is no doubt that this is a purely political event.”
Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons
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