Eds: Corrects spelling of official's last name in graf 2.
MOSCOW (AP) - A group of Russian scientists is marching 130 kilometers (80 miles) to Moscow to demand better wages, stipends and housing, a march organizer said Monday.
The 40 scientists and graduate students set out from Pushchino, a city outside Moscow, and plan to spend three days marching to the Russian capital, said Irina Vinogradova, a trade union official at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Most Russian scientists have seen their wages plummet since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, when generous state support for science withered. Many Russian scientists have sought jobs abroad; others have watched as their standard of living erodes.
March organizers said the number of scientists in Russia is shrinking rapidly and called on government officials to do more to support them.