Allow CRISPR in Russia
Director of the Institute of Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences opposed the equating of CRISPR to GMOs
Olga Dobrovidova, N+1
Alexander Kudryavtsev, director of the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, spoke out against equating genetically edited organisms with GMOs in Russia, as was done in the European Union. Speaking at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kudryavtsev noted that such a measure would lead to the lag of Russian science "for a long time, if not forever."
CRISPR editing of plants is convenient because, ideally, it does not leave any extra traces in the genome, except for the necessary mutation (unlike traditional genetic modification using the genes of other organisms). For this reason, the US Department of Agriculture, for example, excluded from its jurisdiction products obtained with CRISPR (in particular, champignons that do not darken in the air), since from their point of view these products are indistinguishable from products of traditional breeding. However, the European Court, on the contrary, equated such plants to GMOs.
The position of the Russian authorities and science on this issue remains uncertain, but de facto GMOs were banned in Russia back in 2016, and domestic institutions sometimes issue very controversial publications in terms of quality.
At the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kudryavtsev said that if genetic editing in Russia is also equated with genetic modification, then the Russian breeding industry, already lagging behind the Western one due to a lack of qualified personnel, will find itself in a difficult situation.
"We need to prepare for the fact that our breeders will lose in the competition to their Western colleagues... If we follow the path of banning [CRISPR and other genetic editing technologies], then we will lag behind here for a long time, if not forever," Kudryavtsev said.
Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Andrey Fursenko previously stated that the issue of regulating CRISPR organisms in Russia should be decided by the scientific community together with politicians. Since Russia, like the United States (but not the EU), has not ratified the UN Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, theoretically the country can make any decision on this.
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