Russian State Prize laureates to be called in Kremlin
Laureates of the 2007 Russian State Prize will be declared in the Kremlin on Tuesday.
The president’s decree will award three prizes in literature and arts, three in the field of natural, humanitarian and technical sciences, and one for outstanding services in the humanitarian activity.
The Russian State Prize is an official successor to the State Prize of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.
However, the awarding system was seriously changed on the in
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itiative of the Russian president in 2004: the number of laureates was decreased, and the very State Prize has become a rare kind of the Nobel Prize.
A solemn state protocol was established for handing it, and selection of candidates goes in several stages and in secret.
The intrigue keeps until last moment, and names of laureates are called only after respective decrees of the president.
The candidacies of nominees are submitted to the head of the state, the presidential Council on Science, Technology and Education, and to the Council on Culture and Art.
The list of nominees is determined by councils by secret voting. Each nominee must have not less than three-thirds of votes. Besides, independent experts discuss the candidates.
As a rule, the prize is awarded for personal merit, but if success in some sphere was achieved by efforts of several persons the prize can be awarded to a team, but not more than of three persons.
A laureate receives a diploma, an honorary breastplate and a sum of money that in which tax is not levied.
Last year, the prize was five million roubles. It is not ruled out that it can be indexed this year.
The first ceremony of awarding the renewed State Prime was held on June 13, 2005. The strictness and tradition that surround this function does not interfere some surprises in it.
In particular, the awarding of the prize in humanitarian activity to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Alexy II was news, as there was no such state prize so far.
Since then the choice of a laureate in this nomination draw much interest.
Last year, the prize in the humanitarian activity field was awarded to Nobel Prize winner, writer Alexander Solzhenitsin.
Laureates of the 2007 Russian State Prize will be declared in the Kremlin on Tuesday.
