The Russian Academy of Sciences offered its verdict on Wednesday about the work of controversial St. Petersburg inventor Viktor Petrik: "It has nothing to do with science."
Petrik is set to benefit from a nationwide tap water purification program called Clean Water, backed by the United Russia party and worth billions of dollars.
A public backlash against Petrik led the Academy of Sciences to create a special commission in February to analyze his patents and alleged inventions, which range from the treatment of radioactive water and the separation of platinum metals to alpha-ray radiators for nuclear medicine.
The commission, which includes 11 academy members, concluded Wednesday that Petrik, who claims to have been nominated for a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has never published a paper on chemistry in a scientific journal.
Petrik's 38 Russian patents repeat technical solutions previously registered by local and foreign inventors, the commission said in a statement published on the academy's web site.
A filter for purifying radioactive water, patented jointly by Petrik and United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov in 2007, does not work because it is based on an "erroneous perception" of the nature of hydrogen isotopes, the commission said.
Petrik, who served a prison term for fraud in Soviet days, entered the spotlight earlier this year after United Russia started pushing for the Clean Water program, which utilizes the Petrik-Gryzlov filter.
The filter still can be used to purify regular water, and as a result the academy's conclusion will not affect the Clean Water program. Pilot tests, financed by the government and run by Petrik's company Golden Formula, are underway in several schools and municipal facilities throughout the country.
Petrik could not be reached for comment.