Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Moscow on Saturday to protest against planned changes to the Russian Academy of Sciences, local media report.

      The protest rally was organized by a group of professors and young scholars within the Russian Academy of Sciences to draw the authorities’ attention to their opposition to the proposed reforms and to raise awareness among the general public, organizers were cited by local media as saying. The number of participants was estimated by the local press at  about 1,000 people, though the police didn't provide an estimate of attendance.

      During the rally, participants agreed a declaration setting out their position and further action and promised to use all possible legal means, including strikes and mass protest actions, to defend their position.

      In early July Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved a bill of reforms to the Russian Academy of Sciences in second reading, which included plans to disband the Academy and other affiliated institutions. However, in its second reding the bill was changed and no longer referred to the “disbanding” of the Academy, but instead talked about a wide-ranging reorganization.