Russia

On June 16, 2023, a student reported to the media that they had been expelled, along with six other students from the Faculty of History at St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU) for speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The

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On June 2, 2023, the leadership of St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU) fired Mikhail Belousov, an associate professor at the Institute of History, for committing an “immoral act” by speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and “insulting” the Russian

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On May 19, 2023, police raided a student residence at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur State Technical University, injuring around 100 Tajik students. Fifteen students reportedly received serious injuries. According to the students, the Russian riot police, Special Purpose Police Unit (OMON), and

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On April 27, 2023, the Moscow City Court ordered the liquidation of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis (SOVA Center) after the Ministry of Justice claimed that the NGO had violated its charter. The liquidation order comes after Russia’s

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On November 11, 2022, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced entry bans for 200 US citizens, including a list of scholars and researchers. Russia’s ban was in response to the United States government’s sanctions of Russian citizens. The five scholars

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On October 26, 2022, St. Petersburg State University (SPSU) dismissed Denis Skopin, an associate professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, apparently for his participation in protests against the government’s mobilization of military-age men to fight in Russia’s

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On June 30, 2022, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested Dmitry Kolker, a scientist and director of a laboratory at Novosibirsk State University on charges of treason. He died in custody two days later, after being transported to Moscow from

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On April 19, 2022, the rector of Volgograd State University (VSU) fired Roman Melnichenko, a long-time lecturer at VSU’s Department of Constitutional and Municipal Law, shortly after Russian legal proceedings and a VSU investigation were opened against him for allegedly

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On March 9, 2022, it was reported that Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs ordered St. Petersburg State University (SPbGU) to expel 13 students who participated in anti-war protests following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On March 2, SPbGu’s vice-rector Alexander Babich

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On February 28, 2022, the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (PRUE) expelled students Polina Lysenko and Antonina Begacheva for commenting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on social media. On February 24, the students posted Instagram stories that reportedly contained pacifist

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On February 25, 2022, the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow declined to renew the contract of Dmitry Dubrovsky, an internationally renowned scholar and an associate professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences since 2008, apparently on political grounds.

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On June 21, 2021, the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office announced the designation of Bard College, a liberal arts college in New York, as an “undesirable foreign organization.” Russia’s law on “undesirable” organizations, passed in May 2015, seeks to limit the influence

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On April 14, 2021, police raided the office of a student magazine and arrested four student editors in connection with a video they had posted on their magazine’s website. On January 26, 2021, it was reported that the Federal Service

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On January 30, 2021, Astrakhan State University (ASU) expelled three students for participating in a January 23 protest in support of imprisoned opposition politician Alexei Navalny.  Protests over Navalny’s arrest swept Russia in what the New York Times called the

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On December 1, 2020, the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) expelled student Pavel Krysevich for his participation in a demonstration in front of the Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) building. During a November 5, 2020 demonstration in support of

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