While many Western countries are cutting ties with Russia — including scientific ones — due to the war in Ukraine, some countries are not, Nature News reports.
China, India, and South Africa are maintaining their ties with Russia, it says, noting that they, along with Russia and Brazil, are members of BRICS, a group that works together to promote trade and economic advancement as well as scientific collaboration. But it notes that leading scientists in Brazil have spoken out against Russia's war in Ukraine and have organized a fund for researchers fleeing the conflict zone, while a number of researchers in South Africa and India have condemned the invasion in open letters. China, it says, has announced a neutral stance.
Nature News adds that Comstech, which represents science ministers from members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, has also kept scientific links to Russia and is weighing a long-term scientific cooperation agreement with Russia.
Some researchers tell Nature News they oppose cutting research ties. "Scientists should not individually pay the price of war," Peres Menezes from the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil tells it.