SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project investigates and reports attacks on higher education with the aim of raising awareness, generating advocacy, and increasing protection for scholars, students, and academic communities. Starting July 1, 2026, SAR no longer publishes reports for the incidents that it records. SAR continues to monitor and record incidents that will be used in the annual Free to Think report. This page provides a record of incidents reported up to that date. Learn more about the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project.

Date of Incident: February 05, 2026

Attack Types: Imprisonment

Institution(s):Southern Federal University

Region & Country:Europe | Russia

New or Ongoing:New Incident

On February 5, 2026, Russian security forces detained Irakli Bzhinava, an associate professor of law at Southern Federal University, in apparent retaliation for his criticism of the government.

A legal scholar who lives and works in Russia, Bzhinava holds dual citizenship in both Russia and the Republic of Abkhazia, a separatist region of Georgia supported by Russia. On February 4, 2026, Bzhinava posted on Facebook about a recent Russian initiative to issue internal Russian passports on the territory of Abkhazia. Under the new initiative, Abkhaz citizens are required to swear an oath of allegiance to Russia. Bzhinava called it “categorically unacceptable” to mandate such an oath.

The following day, Russian security forces detained Bzhinava. The formal charges brought against him stem from a different post published in December 2022. Bzhinava had criticized an agreement to transfer a state-owned residence in Abkhazia to Russia, claiming the deal violated Abkhaz legislation. The prosecutors accused Bzhinava of having “criminal intent to make public calls for activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation.” The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of three years.

At the time of this writing, Bzhinava remained in pre-trial detention.

Scholars at Risk is concerned about the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of a scholar in apparent retaliation for the nonviolent exercise of the right to freedom of expression —conduct which is expressly protected by international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Russian Federation is a party. State authorities must refrain from restricting or otherwise interfering in the nonviolent exercise of such rights. In addition to the harm to the immediate victim, such actions undermine academic freedom and democratic society generally.

Sources:
https://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/72650
https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/420575
https://jam-news.net/trial-of-abkhaz-lawyer-begins-in-russia/
https://civil.ge/archives/720593
https://t.me/aiasharaabh/10240