Boris Johnson has issued an open invitation for disaffected Russian scientists to defect to the UK, as he used the G7 summit to argue that allowing Russia to prevail in Ukraine would usher in a highly damaging era of global instability, Report informs, citing The Guardian.
As part of an expansion to a twinning system with Ukrainian universities, allowing Ukrainian academics to continue their research at UK institutions, Johnson said this offer extended to their Russian counterparts.
"To the Russian scientists and researchers who are looking upon Putin's violence in dismay and who no longer feel safe in Russia: you should feel free to apply to come to the UK and work in a country that values openness, freedom, and the pursuit of knowledge," Johnson said.
The so-called researchers at risk scheme, which now has an expanded budget of almost £10m, will see about 130 Ukrainian academics brought to the UK and supported.