Russia’s Education and Science Ministry fires genetics institute director who linked genetic diseases to sin

Russia’s Education and Science Ministry has terminated the contract of Alexander Kudryavtsev, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, reports RIA Novosti, citing the ministry’s press service.  

The ministry did not give an official reason for Kudryavtsev’s dismissal. At a March 2023 conference, Kudryavtsev gave a presentation where he stated that in the past, people lived for 900 years. Kudryavtsev attributed the decrease in life expectancy to “original sin” and said that genetic diseases are connected to ancestral and personal sin.