The announcement of Pavlovks's impending doom, in the early Summer of this year, startled the world's scientific community. A social media campaign urged people to send Twitter messages to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. A more conventional petition also did the rounds by email and the media got behind the campaign applying futher pressure on the Russian government.

Unlike many research facilities and seed banks, the Pavlovsk facility is a field genebank, so its collection sits, lives and grows in the ground. This makes transporting or moving it elsewhere a painstaking and expensive challenge which the facilities director claims could take up to 15 years to complete.

Giving into the global pressure, President Medvedev  ordered an inspection of the facility and the proposed plots to be auctioned off on 23 September. On 31st August, the facility was visited without warning by a range of government officials, representing the Russian Housing Development Foundation (who own the land and want to sell it), The Public Chamber and the Accounts Chamber. As a result of their impromptu inspection, the team conceded that the land which they intended to sell did in-fact house some of the Vavilov botanical collection and agreed to a postponement of their auction, which had been schedule for late September.

The reprieve, which is set to last until the end of October has given the movement to protect the facility more time to gather pace. Letters have been written to President Medvedev by world leading scientists, agriculturalists and botanists and the organisations which they represent.

Still, the ultimate fate of the facility has not yet been determined and a 'final push' is expected to gather pace in the weeks ahead to keep the Pavlovsk issue on the agenda of the most senior figures in the Russian government.