US mathematicians opposed the holding of the International Mathematical Congress in St. Petersburg because of the events in Ukraine – Université de Sfax

On February 22, 2022, the website of the American Mathematical Society (hereinafter – AMS) published a statement by its president, Ruth Charney, regarding the International Congress of Mathematicians (hereinafter – ICM) scheduled for July 2022 in St. Petersburg. She opposed the holding of the forum on the Neva because of the situation in Ukraine.

Ruth is a renowned mathematician with a Ph.D. at Princeton University (USA), is engaged in research in the field of geometric group theory and algebraic topology. She chaired the American Association for Women in Mathematics from 2013-2015. She has been elected as President of AMS for the period 2021-2023.

She said in a statement: “AMS management is deeply concerned about the current developments in Ukraine and their implications for the 2022 International Mathematical Congress (IMC) due to be held in St. Petersburg, Russia. International scientific exchange is essential for the growth and prosperity of research mathematics. ICM provides a unique opportunity to support and strengthen these ties, but not in the current environment. AMS does not plan to send its representatives to the congress in St. Petersburg. We urge the International Mathematical Union not to hold ICM in Russia in July 2022” [1].

She writes that “the AMS-NSF ICM travel grant program has been suspended. Those colleagues whose names have already been approved for travel grants will receive further instructions from AMS on February 23rd.”

“The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is a professional association of 30,000 people and 570 organizations worldwide dedicated to promoting mathematical research and scientific research and building relationships with the global mathematical community through publications, meetings, advocacy for mathematicians, and support for their careers. and much more, » the AMS president concluded the statement.

Recall that earlier there were already calls not to hold or postpone the congress in St. Petersburg due to an unjustifiably harsh sentence for mathematician Azat Miftakhov, who received six years in a penal colony and is now deprived of the opportunity to engage in science. On July 5-6, 2022, the second International Days of Azat Miftakhov

[2] should take place, at which there will be a conversation about both mathematics and human rights and scientists repressed in Russia. The discussion on human rights, together with Memorial*, is scheduled for July 6, the day of the planned opening of the congress in St. Petersburg.

Over the past year and a half, mathematical societies from around the world have spoken out in defense of Azat. 104 Russian mathematicians (there were 64 at the time of the first publication on December 10, 2021) asked to postpone the Mathematical Congress in St. Petersburg until the release of Azat Miftakhov [3, 4]. In turn, the Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union posted a statement on its website on November 2, 2021 , in which it called on the Russian authorities to release Miftakhov as soon as possible so that he could continue working on his dissertation in France [5].

It is worth noting that on February 12, 2022, Kommersant [6] in an article about the achievements of Russian mathematics published a comment by one of the organizers of the ICM in St. Petersburg, Fields Prize winner Andrei Okounkov: “When the congress was planned, no one could have imagined what the the size of the problems in our path. Of course, the pandemic has mixed all the cards, many international events have already fallen victim to it. But it was equally difficult to imagine that we, the organizers of the congress, would be subjected to real persecution by a large number of both individual colleagues and entire professional communities who repeatedly raised the issue of boycotting the congress. It is very difficult to face a conscious desire to harm, very likely fueled by the subconscious rejection of an entire country.

“This is especially surprising because it is impossible to imagine a more universal and unifying subject than mathematics. The population of the Earth speaks thousands of very different languages, and the language of mathematics is one for everyone, one for all countries, for all categories of citizens, just one. He is completely apolitical, does not know authorities, is minimally subject to fashion and expresses the truth and the truth as accurately as humanity is generally capable of speaking about the truth, ”Okounkov is sure. “Therefore, every time it’s a shame when mathematics becomes a bargaining chip in public or political disputes.”

In his remark, as well as in the article in Kommersant itself, on the whole, not a word is said about the reasons for such disagreements in the mathematical community, in particular, nothing is said about why the idea of a boycott or postponement of the forum arose – in particular, about the fate mathematician Azat Miftakhov. In 2018, when the International Mathematical Union supported the application of Russia (and did not support France) at the vote of its General Assembly in Sao Paulo (Brazil), Andrei Okounkov apparently did not notice the “subconscious rejection of the whole country”. Why did it appear in these four years?

What will be the reaction of other scientific mathematical societies of the world, as well as the International Mathematical Union, we will probably find out in the coming days. A meeting of the leadership of the International Mathematical Union is scheduled for February 24, which may take some decisions related to the forum on the Neva.

* included by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the register of « foreign agents »