Russia: Violations of academic freedom in 2023

The socio-political context and persecution of scientists and teachers

Dmitry Dubrovsky
Verena Podolskaya

Monitoring methodology: violation of the rights of students and teachers vs violation of academic rights and freedoms

Our selection method is based on the Scholars at Risk methodology for identifying violations of the academic rights and freedoms of teachers and students. Major violations include murder, unlawful prosecution by the state, imprisonment on falsified charges, restrictions on movement, expulsion or dismissal from a university or institute, and a number of other serious infringements of academic freedom.

Violations of the rights and freedoms of students as citizens should be distinguished from violations of academic freedom. The latter involves the participation of the university, its administration or authorized representatives in the action or inaction that caused the violation, as well as violations committed on territory generally understood as academic space (an auditorium, a laboratory, the student campus).

For example, the unlawful detention of a student or teacher for a peaceful protest would be a violation of civil rights to peaceful marches and demonstrations. We regard dismissal or expulsion for the same “right violation” by the management of a university or scientific institute as a violation of academic freedom.

In other words, we consider a violation of civil rights committed without the participation of university employees or administration to be a violation of human rights. Direct or indirect participation of the leadership of a scientific or research institution will be considered a violation of academic freedom.

Verification by two sources.

In our monitoring report, every violation was verified by at least two independent sources. Instances where the violation cannot be confirmed (there is only one source, or it is a retelling of an event whose authenticity cannot be verified) were not included in the report.

A special category of violations in our methodology are events that are not yet gross violations of academic freedom but characterize the atmosphere in an educational or research institution and also help to understand possible subsequent violations of academic freedom. For example, repeated verbal “warnings” that an employee receives for “unenthusiastic thinking” may later be the key to understanding why that employee’s contract was not renewed at the employer’s initiative.

Our methodology also distinguishes a special category of violations for cases that are not yet gross violations of academic freedom but set the atmosphere in an educational or research environment and also help to contextualize possible subsequent violations of academic freedom. For example, repeated verbal “warnings” that an employee receives for “unenthusiastic thinking” may later be the key to understanding why that employee’s contract was not renewed at the employer’s initiative.

Using monitoring results

Data from this monitoring report have been used, first and foremost, in a joint publication with the Russian scientific emigree newspaper, Troitsky Invariant, as well as a publication with the international monitoring body for violations of academic rights and freedoms Scholars at Risk. Materials were also sent in early February to the Special Rapporteur UN on the right to education.

Institutional climate

These violations of academic freedom in Russia come amid serious pressure on the higher education system due to the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine. First of all, the process of militarization of higher education is intensifying, new military training centers are popping up, where “veterans of the special military operation” are starting to teach. A course in basic military training is being made mandatory.

At the same time, the ideological pressure is increasing. The courses “Fundamentals of Russian Statehood,” “History of Russia,” “Traditional Religions of Russia,” and “Traditional Russian Values” have appeared as mandatory courses in all university curriculums.

The content of all these courses is intended to “scientifically” substantiate and promote the idea of a “special Russian path”—Russia as a “special civilization” based on the principles of imperialism, “traditional values” and the sacralization of state power.

Military registration and enlistment offices have redoubled efforts to put pressure on students and graduates affected by the mobilization. Students who resist or protest the war are subject to pressure from university authorities and expelled, usually on flimsy grounds. As Paper reports, while corresponding with the head of the independent student trade union concerning activities that the university found extremely dissatisfying, St. Petersburg State University admin threatened “problems in exams” and “sending [students] to the front line.”

One story that stands out is the attempt to forcibly conscript Nigerian students at the Southern Federal University in Rostov-on-Don. According to the students, they were not only promised high salaries but also intimidated by threats of increased tuition costs and withdrawn scholarships.

The persecution of students and teachers by university authorities for their anti-war stances is a general trend (see the list of cases submitted to SAR for publication in the international academic freedom monitoring report below).

Laws on “undesirable organizations” and “foreign agents”

Since they were first adopted, laws on “undesirable organizations” and “foreign agents” have caused continuous academic freedom violations. A number of research organizations have been forced to either severely cut back on their research plans or shut down entirely (e.g. CISR, Levada Center). In 2022-2023, a number of organizations that carried out human rights and research projects were recognized as foreign agents and forced to close.

Thus, at the very beginning of the war, Memorial, the oldest human rights, charity, research and education organization in the country, was finally liquidated. As an example of the persecution faced by Memorial and associated entities, take the Center for Historical Memory, which utilized the Memorial branch in Perm. The organization was fined 300,000 rubles (about 30,000 euros) for “discrediting the Russian army,” and its chairman was placed under arrest for charges of “attempted export of cultural property,” by which investigators meant the Memorial archives themselves.

In 2016, the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, which followed cases concerning freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, and anti-extremist legislation, was recognized as a foreign agent. In April 2023, the decision was made to liquidate it on grounds that are difficult to interpret as anything but illegal: holding events outside the Moscow region where the organization is registered.

In March 2023, the Prosecutor General's Office declared the conduct of the Free University—a project created by a number of instructors teaching online courses in a wide range of disciplines, from literature to higher mathematics—to be “undesirable.” The reason given was the alleged “anti-Russian nature” of the courses taught, as well as the imposition of an “ultra-liberal model of democracy” on students. After this decision, teaching courses in Russia became almost impossible, since Russian law provides penalties for “collaborating with an undesirable organization” ranging from fines to imprisonment.

The justification for including the Central European University in Vienna (CEU) on the “undesirable” list was similar. In particular, a statement from the Prosecutor General’s Office referred to the “anti-Russian orientation” of the courses taught at the university: they allegedly “...deliberately devalued and distorted the history of the Russian state; downplayed the merits of prominent Russian scientists, writers, and cultural figures; and promoted false statements about Russia’s guilt in all global cataclysms.”

For a number of research or scientific organizations recognized as “undesirable” in 2023, no justification was provided at all. Thus, in October, the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPA) was given “undesirable” status, and in November, AKNO—the European Academic Assistance Network, which was involved in helping Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian scientists and students find a place to work or study in Germany, as well as The Center for East European and International Studies (ZOIS)—a German research organization that studies issues of history, culture and politics within the Russian Federation, were both deemed “undesirable.” In stark contrast with their attitude towards other institutions, the Prosecutor General’s Office spoke out in detail about ZOIS, asserting, among other things, that through their “pseudo-experts” and “pseudo-analysts,” the Center advances the goal of “spurning anti-Russian sentiment,” as well as “discrediting the authority of Russia in the international arena, destabilizing the political situation...and proliferating propaganda that distorts the history of the Russian state.”

Our search for “hostile influences” on Russian students in 2022-2023 also revealed the destruction of two liberal arts faculties—one at St. Petersburg State University, and the other on the Moscow RANEPA campus.

The Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St. Petersburg was created in collaboration with Bard College, which was also declared an undesirable institution in 2021. After this, St. Petersburg State University conducted an examination of the courses taught at the faculty and found “ideologized disciplines consistent with the worst Western stereotypes,” “ignoring the views, positions and conclusions of Russian researchers” and a lack of discussion about the “spiritual and moral origins of modern Russia.”

The result of this “reorganization” was a complete overhaul of the curriculum and the creation of a new program in which no trace of the liberal arts can be found. The dismissal of Sociology and Anthropology teachers Viktor Kaplun and Zhanna Chernova, as well as the departure of political scientist Pavel Kononenko, became a catalyst for the decline. It is significant that this department was where the first open political dismissal occurred when teacher Denis Skopin, who was fired for an “immoral act” when he participated in an anti-war protest (see below, in the section “Persecution of teachers and scientists”). The acting dean of the faculty, A. Astvatsaturov, currently denies that it was shut down. Nevertheless, it is obvious that by the fall of 2023, the department, as it was in its original form, had virtually ceased to exist.

The situation with the RANEPA liberal arts faculty developed in a similar way. After the serious political pressure placed on the university as a whole and the crisis associated with the arrest of Rector Sergei Zuev, the department was renamed a “general baccalaureate.” Some teachers who had played an active role in creating the program quit and left. The structure and general direction remained unchanged, although a number of courses, primarily History of Russia, began to use ideology to justify war and aggression.

Thus, in Russian higher education, the teaching model suspected of having a “pernicious influence” on Russian youth has been largely dismantled. The only educational institution that continues to work formally according to this model and is not subject to political pressure is the School of Advanced Studies at Tyumen University. A significant part of the teachers quit following the start of the war. Perhaps the reason that this program has been retained is that the current Minister of Education and Science Valery Falkov was a recent rector of the university and has actively supported the project since its inception.

The same issues are apparent at another non-standard Russian higher educational institution—the European University in St. Petersburg. In 2023, after losing the building it had occupied since it first opened, was subject to inspection by a number of authorities, including the prosecutor’s office, and in December was fined for having books in a closed section of the library published by the currently “undesirable” Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation).

Persecution of teachers and scientists

The current witch-hunt in Russian science and higher education is centered around hunting out various “enemies of the state.” The targets can be divided into five categories, depending on the pretext:

“foreign agents” – receiving this status leads to a direct ban on teaching
anti-war activists – public speech and comments lead to dismissals, or even administrative and criminal cases for “discrediting the Russian army”
scientists or teachers penalized for public statements or criticism of leadership (unrelated to the war)
LGBT and transgender people, both students and staff, whose rights were actively violated after the introduction of a de-facto ban on everything related to homosexuality and on what the Russian authorities call “sex change propaganda”
various fabricated cases against scientists working in military tech, who, as a rule, followed the requirements of the law on state secrets in good faith

Persecution of teachers as foreign agents

On December 1, 2022, amendments tightening the rules regarding individual foreign agents. In particular, foreign agents were prohibited from teaching in the public higher education system. As a result, a number of people who had previously been recognized as foreign agents lost their jobs.

Thus, Vitaly Kovin, a teacher at the Perm Pedagogical University, who was one of the first to be recognized as a foreign agent, was fired, officially due to a lack of teaching load. The political scientist himself notes that the university rector tried to defend him to the last, but could not handle the pressure “from above.”

Political scientists Ekaterina Shulman, Sergei Medvedev, Valery Solovey, Boris Kagarlitsky and Kirill Martynov, sociologists Iskander Yasaveev, Ella Rossman and Viktor Vakhshtain, historian Andrei Zubov, mathematician Mikhail Lobanov, anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova, philologist Yulia Galyamina, economist Vladislav Inozemtsev, as well as the author of this report, were all also previously recognized as “foreign agents” and lost the formal right to teach in Russia. Foreign agent journalists who taught journalism, such as Daria Apokhonchich, Pyotr Manyakhin, also lost their teaching privileges. All of the listed so-called “foreign agents” had many years of teaching experience at leading Russian universities.

It is worth noting that when adding the Vozrozhdenie (Renaissance) School, created by a number of leading political scientists in exile, to the list of foreign agents, the Ministry of Justice detailed everyone who was involved in teaching there, which may be a threat to anyone connected to the school in one way or another, even if they are not “foreign agents.”

At the end of 2022-beginning of 2023, several people previously declared "foreign agents" lost their jobs.

The dismissal of Yulia Galyamina at the end of 2022 was due to her refusal to switch to “non-teaching and non-research rates” after being recognized as a foreign agent (the law prohibits persons recognized as foreign agents from teaching in government institutions, but does not officially prohibit offering them research rates; in reality, not one university has dared to do this).
Moscow State University teacher and mathematician Mikhail Lobanov, who is a left-wing politician and civil activist and was recognized as a foreign agent, was fired in July 2023. His dismissal is justified as being: “due to circumstances beyond the will of all”
The dismissal of Perm Pedagogical University teacher Vitaly Kovin came after many years of struggle. He was first named a foreign agent in 2021. In 2022, he was removed from the list, and a month later his name was placed back on it. Despite support from the university rector, Vitaly was forced to leave the university.

In one case, the Psychology Department at Moscow State University forced associate professor Stanislav Kozlovsky to resign, based on the statement by department admin that he, as the head of Wikimedia.Ru, would soon be declared a foreign agent. This did not happen, but he was dismissed “of his own volition.”

It is also telling that after various recommendations not to communicate with or give comments to “foreign agent” media, universities now have direct bans on giving comments to these publications. In July 2023, St. Petersburg State University issued an order prohibiting university employees from giving comments to media outlets recognized as “undesirable” or “foreign agents.” The Higher School of Economics has issued instructions to remove all materials published by foreign agents from the library, and not to invite people recognized as foreign agents to university events.

After the law on foreign agents, which previously mainly affected independent research teams, was amended to include individuals and prohibit them from teaching, it became a direct analogue of the notorious Berufsverbot.

In November, the Institute of Law and Public Policy, recognized as a “foreign agent” back in 2021, filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court, pointing out that the application of the law on “foreign agents” does not distinguish between political and scientific activities, which leads to the derogation of the rights of organizations supporting freedom of scientific creativity.

Persecution of LGBTQ teachers and staff of Russian universities

The situation faced by LGBT students and teachers has significantly worsened after the adoption of laws effectively outlawing any representative of the LGBT community as an “extremist,” as well as prohibiting trans people from transitioning. In most cases, monitoring bodies cannot even name real names, since revealing them could lead to criminal prosecution “for LGBT propaganda” or “promoting gender reassignment.” One such situation was described by Groza, when a history student at Penza University transitioned, and in the process faced serious harassment from the assistant dean of the department. One of the arguments that was used to try to force the student to leave the university was that he allegedly “promoted gender reassignment” and “could not teach children.”

At the very end of the year, HSE masters student Ilya Andreyev wrote a letter explaining why he was dropping out as a sign of protest against homophobic legislation; in particular, he indicated that as an openly gay man, he finds it impossible to continue studying at a state university, which is controlled and funded by the Russian government, which incites “medieval xenophobia” towards representatives of the LGBT community.

After these laws, the Higher School of Economics demanded that all LGBT-related materials be removed from the library.

Persecution related to anti-war activities

After the outbreak of hostilities in Russia, laws were passed that criminalized public anti-war statements as “discrediting the Russian army” through administrative prosecution. Stories about the death of civilians as a result of the actions of the Russian Armed Forces are interpreted as a criminal offense, “dissemination of fakes,” entailing criminal prosecution and imprisonment for up to 15 years.

Despite these threats, Russian scientists and teachers actively participate in the anti-war movement, even while being subject to criminal or administrative prosecution. As a rule, the result of these cases opened by the state are illegal actions on the part of the administration of Russian universities. They often view this prosecution as a reaction to a “violation of the code of ethics” or an “immoral act” leading to dismissal. Sometimes, they employ far-fetched reasons to justify this behavior.

The grounds for the dismissal of St. Petersburg State University teacher Denis Skopin was an “immoral act,” regarding his participation and subsequent detention at an anti-war rally.
Ilya Inishev, a teacher at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, was fired for an “immoral act,” in this case, obscene language on his Facebook page (in a post about the war).
A teacher from the Urals, Artem Izgagin, was fined for a photograph and anti-war posts he published in a private Telegram channel; this fine became the basis for subsequent dismissal.
The same rationale was used to persecute Mikhail Belousov, a St. Petersburg State University teacher who spoke out against the war.
In the spring, MIPT employee Viktor Moskalev, who had been sent on compulsory leave in the summer, was arrested for “fake news” (that is, for posts about the genocide committed by the Russian army in Bucha and Mariupol). According to sources, MIPT administration strongly recommended that eyewitnesses to the arrest keep quiet and not try to intercede for Moskalev. The Memorial Human Rights Center recognized him as a political prisoner.

The fact that the contract of Elena Lukovitskaya, a teacher at Novgorod State University, was not renewed also occurred, as she suggests, due to her anti-war posts. Notably, her position was filled by a former graduate student who had already distinguished himself by working adamantly to protect the “Russian cultural code” against the alleged propaganda promoting “hatred of Russia and Russians.”

Any anti-war statement or action itself is used as a pretext to paint a teacher or student as a violator of academic ethics. Ethical commissions are frequently used for this purpose, the conclusions of which become grounds for dismissal.

This was the case for Mikhail Belousov, a historian from St. Petersburg State University, who was fired for “inappropriate irony” regarding a university student killed in the war.
A similar conclusion from the ethical commission was the basis for Ilya Inishev’s dismissal.
In the case of Denis Skopin, his detention was considered a violation of the university charter, and he was fired for “immoral misconduct.”
Alexandra Zaitseva, at the time chief editor of the student publication Studen’ was accused of having a disrespectful attitude towards teachers and students, as well as “posting a publication online...the content of which can be considered a violation of the current legislation of the Russian Federation.”

The dismissal of Svetlana Drugoveyko-Dolzhanskaya, a philologist from St. Petersburg State University, can be considered “persecution by association.” She wrote a scathing critique of the investigation of anti-war activist Skochilenko, prepared by “specialists” from St. Petersburg State University. The ethics committee considered this review, as well as her speech in court, “incompatible” with university values.

Another stand-out case is Mikhail Belousov. It began with a denunciation by pro-war activists. As a result, the teacher was not only fired—a criminal case was opened against him. Students who supported him were also persecuted.

Following accusations from her own students, a RANEPA teacher from Nizhny Novgorod, Irina Sedelnikova, was charged and received three years probation under the article on “dissemination of knowingly false information” about the “special military operation” at a seminar lecture. According to media reports, the students filmed her answers about the military operations on their phones, which later became evidence in court. In addition to her sentence, she is also banned from teaching for two years.

In this case, as well as a slew of others, the activity of pro-war activists in academia plays a noteworthy role. Pro-Russian propagandist and Dean of the Faculty of Media Communications and Audiovisual Arts of the Moscow State University of Culture Y. Kot published information about the existence of an “anti-Russian group” (allegedly created by Mikhail Belousov) at the Institute of History at St. Petersburg State University on his Dzen page. He also brazenly published a list of “unpatriotic” students with an appeal to deal with them.

Another example of pro-war vigilantism is Vitaly Palukhin from the Belgorod State Technical University, who was fined for posts he made on a private Telegram channel, which was later made public by an unknown source.

Yet another is the detention of Dmitry Tolstenko, a teacher at the Crimean Federal University*, who was detained and then fined following accusations by a pro-government Telegram channel for publishing videos in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The accuser, a journalist, was sure that “he will no longer be working at CFU.”

* Since it is located on annexed Ukrainian territory, we cannot classify this educational institution as a regular Russian university.

University security officers also play an important role in the persecution of anti-war activists. Accusations made by the head of the MIET security department concerning “unpatriotic” statements made by student Daniil Voitovich played a key role in his prosecution. The main evidence used in the dismissal of Ural Technological College teacher Ivan Zolotov was an accusation made by the head of the college’s security department, Evgeniy Oleinikov-Mandrukh, and Natalia Zerkaliy, a teacher at the same college. The interrogation report lists, in particular, claims that “the essence of Alexander Galich’s song entitled ‘March of Marauders’ is that the current government, who are referred to as ‘marauders,’ stole victory from the real winners of the Great Patriotic War, and is now praised for it”; such an employee, according to Oleynikov-Mendrukh, is not worthy of bearing the title of “teacher.”

Often, state accusations of “extremism” become grounds for dismissal of a teacher or student. An employee of the non-state Siberian Institute of Business, Management and Psychology fired Natalya Podolyak from the position of head of the university’s sports club on the basis of the “law on countering extremist activities,” as well as alleged “repeated violation of professional obligations.”

Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Abramov, who is apparently suspected of financing Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, which is recognized as an extremist organization in Russia, has been detained and is under house arrest on charges of collaborating with an extremist organization. It is telling that attempts by a number of academics to raise the issue of supporting the persecuted were suppressed by the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Students may even be persecuted for expressing discontentment with the administration’s pro-war stances. In Yaroslavl, several students of the local State Theater Institute were ordered to perform at a “patriotic concert,” and after expressing their complaints, were declared “unsuitable for work” and transferred to another city. Students who publicly supported them have been declared “traitors” by the administration.

A criminal case was opened against Northern Federal University student Olesya Krivtsova for “discrediting the army” and “justifying terrorism.” NArFU expelled the student, judging that “house arrest interferes with education.” Olesya escaped house arrest and is currently residing in Vilnius.

Seven students who supported Mikhail Belousov were expelled from St. Petersburg State University based on their “insincere” answers.

Another common violation of student rights is expulsion due to leaving the country or refusal to grant academic leave. Many students who left Russia, fleeing war and mobilization, hoped to complete their studies remotely. In most cases they were denied this for official reasons; Presumably, the real reason was their anti-war stance and decision to leave the country.

Dismissals or non-renewal of work contracts for other reasons

One particularly prevalent violation of academic freedom was the non-renewal of a contract on an arbitrary basis—an alleged ban on remote forms of work, including teaching. The arbitrariness of this act is especially obvious given the fact that some teachers were granted an extension to their contracts while living outside the Russian Federation, while others, on the contrary, were denied this right. One example is Larisa Muravyova, a teacher at the Smolny Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, who tried to switch to remote instruction after leaving the country, but the management of St. Petersburg State University ignored all her requests and forced her to write a letter of resignation. Former dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Alexander Pogrebnyak, was fired in the same way.

Igor Lipsits, a tenured professor and one of the founders of the HSE, refused to renew his contract after the National Research University Higher School of Economics refused to permit him to work remotely, even after they had granted permission before. Lipsits, a well-known economist and holder of the HSE Founder diploma, was offered alternative positions as an accountant or dishwasher.

Ungrounded dismissals continue based on criticism that the management finds issue with, In Khakassia, researcher at the Khakass Research Institute of Language, Literature, and History Alexey Nilogov was officially fired for truancy (that is, for being absent from work). He cites the reason as a conflict with the director of the institute, in particular, her reaction to criticism of numerous errors in the Encyclopedia of Khakassia published by the institute. This was not the first attempt to fire him; the previous one was overturned by the court.

Vice Dean of the Faculty of International Journalism Yuri Kobaladze was fired for failure to comply with administration policy about “permissible” guests. According to the general belief, Kobaladze was fired for inviting the anti-war journalist Ivan Urgant to speak to students.

For his entirely scientific criticism of the course of foreign policy in modern Russia, Valery Garbuzov, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was fired from his post as Director of the Institute in the USA and Canada. The dismissal took place “at the initiative of the founding institution” (that is, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science).

“Espionage” cases

In 2023, one espionage case was filed.

This is a continuation of the case initiated in the summer of 2022 against three physicists from the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences—Anatoly Maslov, Dmitry Kolker and Alexander Shiplyuk. During this time, Kolker died in custody because he was seriously ill with stage 4 cancer. A. Maslov and A. Shiplyuk remain in custody. In May 2023, their colleague, physicist Valery Zvegintsev, was arrested.

The exact grounds for the charges is still unknown, but according to a letter of support in defense of scientists, the case concerns “...a necessary component of conscientious and qualitative scientific activity: giving presentations at international seminars and conferences, publishing articles in highly reputable journals and participating in international scientific projects.”

The peculiarity of these cases is the absolute lack of transparency, the practical impossibility of exercising the right to a defense, and the arbitrariness of the prosecution, backed by the support of the Federal Security Service.

List of cases submitted to SAR for publication in the international monitoring of academic freedom:

Ilya Inishev

Date of incident: December 27, 2022

Violation: unfounded dismissal

Institution: HSE, Moscow

On December 27, 2022, the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow fired Ilya Inishev, who had been a HSE professor since 2010 and headed the master's program in Cultural Studies. The pretext for dismissal was the use of obscene language on social networks. In November 2022, the chairman of the HSE Academic Ethics Committee informed Ilya Inishev that the use of obscene words could cause him to be charged under the code of ethics.

The dismissal of a professor for “obscene language” on social networks is a disproportionate reaction to an officially confirmed violation of the provisions of the HSE Employee Code of Ethics. The context of the dismissal points to persecution for a faculty member's anti-war stance, which is a violation of academic freedom of expression.

Source

Ekaterina Sergeenko

Date: January 26, 2023

Violation: threats of expulsion

Institution: St. Petersburg State Agrarian University Tourism College

College students from St. Petersburg State University were summoned to the dean’s office because they subscribed to the Smart Voting project’s mailing list. They were threatened with expulsion. Management claimed that the reason was poor academic performance, although the existing recording of the conversation does not confirm this. Ekaterina claims that she signed up for the newsletter before the summer of 2021, that is, before the Smart Voting project was recognized as an extremist organization.

Pressure on female students for registering with Smart Voting, including through the use of threats, is a violation of academic freedom.

Source

Free University

Date: March 31, 2023

Violation: persecution

Institution: Free University

Free University is an independent online education organization founded by former HSE teachers. In 2021, the organizers registered the NGO "Free University" (biedrība Brīvā Universitāte) in Latvia.

On March 31, 2023, the prosecutor’s office declared the activities of the educational project “undesirable.” Russian laws allow citizens to be held administratively and then criminally liable for any “participation in the activities” of such organizations. The authorities can use this to persecute teachers and students who attend independent seminars and participate in free scientific discussion as violators of the law.

On April 2, the Academic Council of the Free University decided to suspend its activities in the Russian Federation.

We consider the law on undesirable organizations itself contrary to international legal norms and the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and the inclusion of the Free University on this list a gross violation of the principle of academic freedom and academic autonomy.

Sources: 1) 2) 3)

SOVA Center

Date: March 10, 2023

Violation: shutting down organization

Institution: SOVA Information and Analytical Center

On March 10, the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit to liquidate the SOVA Information and Analytical Center, citing “violations” committed when events were held outside of Moscow (a reason with no serious legal basis).

Source

Novosibirsk Novocollege

Date: May 10, 2023

Violation: violation of the autonomy of a private educational institution, declaring a college director a “foreign agent”

Institution: Novosibirsk Novocollege

According to the director of the college, Sergei Chernyshov, the private educational institution was accused of administrative offenses after a denunciation by Novosibirsk resident Dmitry Demin. Cases were opened under three articles:

violation of the requirements for conducting educational activities and organizing the educational process (Article 19.30 Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses)
carrying out activities not related to profit-making without special permission (Article 19.20 Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) and violation of the requirements for anti-terrorist protection of assets (Article 20.35 Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses)
the "absence" of a safety data sheet that was actually fully accessible

Director Chernyshev was recognized as a foreign agent and left his post in June.

Source

Olesya Krivtsova

Date: December 2022

Violation: persecution, expulsion

Institution: Northern Arctic Federal University

In December 2022, Northern Arctic University student Olesya Krivtsova was placed under house arrest after she spoke out on social media against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Krivtsova faced a sentence of up to seven years for “discrediting the army” and “justifying terrorism.” Immediately after being placed under arrest, she was added to the list of extremists and terrorists, which seriously limited her civil rights even before her trial. NArFU ruled that being under house arrest was not grounds for academic leave and expelled her.

She escaped from house arrest and is now residing in Vilnius.

Source

Denis Skopin

Date: December 26, 2022

Violation: dismissal

Institution: St. Petersburg State University

St. Petersburg State University philosophy professor Denis Skopin was detained at a protest against forced conscription. Three weeks later, he received a call from the university's human resources department informing him that the university administration had fired him for an "immoral act" involving participation in an "unauthorized protest."

Source

Artem Izgagin

Date: January 11, 2023

Violation: dismissal

Institution: Pervouralsk College

On January 11, 2023, Artem Izgagin, a mathematics teacher at Pervouralsk College, was convicted of “discrediting the Russian army.” According to sources, after the start of the special operation, he published several social media posts criticizing the actions of the Russian army. State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein demanded that the teacher be fired for these posts.

Source

Daniil Voitovich

Date: October 28, 2023

Violation: arrest and fine

Institution: Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology (MIET)

On September 15, 2023, in the presence of 10 students and a teacher, student Daniil Voitovich expressed his opinion about the Russian government and stood in support for Ukraine. On October 28, 2023, the Zelenogradsky District Court of Moscow arrested Voitovich under Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for five days for using a student card with a cover depicting a white-red-white flag (the flag of the Belarusian unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine). The court considered this to be a symbol of an armed group associated with an extremist organization, and according to them, the student “displayed” this symbol when purchasing a train ticket, as well as when entering the university. In addition to five days of administrative arrest, the court ordered the card with the “extremist symbol” be confiscated.

On the same day, Voitovich was fined 35,000 rubles under the article for discrediting the Russian army, since “in the MIET auditorium he shouted slogans against the special military operation and in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” A statement against Voitovich was written by MIET employee Farid Abdullin, head of the University’s security department, responsible for mobilization preparations.