Certain Russian politicians and businessmen could be elected members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), a leading Russian business daily said Monday.

Kommersant said that Audit Chamber head Sergei Stepashin, leading banker Garegin Tosunyan, Khabarovsk Region governor Viktor Ishayev and senator Gleb Fetisov would be likely to seek election to the RAS.

"I believe if a person occupies a public position and is a good academic, he should not be banned from becoming an RAS member," academician Alexander Chubaryan said.

The daily said applicants for Academy titles would be nominated by research institutes or current members of Academy. Votes on elections to the prestigious Academy of Sciences will be held at an RAS general meeting.

RAS vice president Alexander Nekipelov told Kommersant that there has been no official nomination yet, but "these people are carrying out scientific work, science is not alien to them. Anyone can be nominated."

The candidates refused to comment on their nominations, which look set to arouse a measure of hostility within the RAS. Kommersant said two years ago a similar move caused an uproar when applicants included Stepashin, the agriculture minister, a deputy lower house speaker, and a Constitutional Court member, among others.

The scholars decided then that a high number of VIPs would discredit the Academy and questioned the applicants' scientific merits, subsequently rejecting their candidacies. Stepashin withdrew his own candidacy, telling a RAS general meeting that he was doing so in order to protect the reputation of the Academy.