Hi Annelidians,
I have just visited the Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences,
St. Petersburg and was requested by Galina N. Buzhinskaya to inform you
about the situation there.
Although the Zoological Institute is one of the oldest and largest zoological
institutions in Russia and keeps one of the oldest and largest polychaete
collections in the world, it passes through a difficult time in its history. The
scientific and technical stuff of the Institute has been steady reducing during
the last 15 years and the curator of the polychaete collection was recently
forced to occupy a half-time position. The Institute has no funds to send
materials on request and even customs for those materials returned from
abroad must be paid by the curator from her own fund. We have hope that
such an abnormal situation will not last for a long time, and the collection of
polychaetes will become again available for the international zoological
society. Nevertheless, I beg to inform you that nowadays:
1) the Zoological Institute does not send materials on request; 2) if someone
has borrowed a material from the Institute, please find a way to return it via
colleagues visiting Russia; 3) if someone extremely needs to borrow a
material from the Institute, please find a way to receive it via colleagues
visiting Russia, or Russians travelling abroad. However, I must warn you that
handcarrying material across the customs must be specifically processed
and this is not easy business in Russia…
Cheers,
Vasily Radashevsky
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns.
Don't give up though the place seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow!
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