Текст на русском

To our Russian Academic Colleagues:

We have learned that your media are telling Russians that we in the West want Russia to become an underdeveloped Third World nation.

This is the opposite of the truth.

In the 21st century, national greatness comes from harnessing the human mind to help humanity. In those terms, we see Russia as one of the great nations of the world, with a highly educated population, world-class universities, a leader in scientific research, the arts, and literature. With the enormous talent of its people, Russia could also easily become a center of the world’s information and biotechnology industries, with unlimited possibilities for innovation and economic development.

Yet, to realize that goal, we must work together for a world without war and a world that values intellectual, economic, and cultural interdependence, not anachronistic nationalism. We must work together to assure that military might, used indiscriminately to foster such nationalism, as Russia is now doing in Ukraine, has no place in today’s world and no longer has a place in defining what makes nations great. And difficult as it may be, today this means working together to end the bloodshed in Ukraine.

We in the West would love to see all that happen, and we are sure that most Russians wish it as well. We want to continue to collaborate with you, to exchange ideas, and to work together to build a better world for everyone.