The Prosecutor General’s Office has declared the international educational foundation IB an “undesirable organisation.”

The Prosecutor General’s Office has declared the International Baccalaureate Foundation, which develops international educational programmes for children and teenagers aged three to 19, an “undesirable organisation.” This was announced on the agency’s website.

The Prosecutor General’s Office claims that the foundation aims to “reshape Russian youth according to Western models,” and that within its educational programmes it imposes its own interpretation of historical events, distorts widely accepted facts, incites interethnic hatred, and conducts anti-Russian propaganda.

“Since the start of the special military operation, teaching and methodological materials have been revised to reflect the collective West’s Russophobic stance. These now include calls for the international isolation of our country and materials undermining the reputation of the Russian army,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in its statement.

The Russian authority also accused the organisation of promoting “non-traditional values, based on the ideology of banned extremist groups.”

The International Baccalaureate Foundation was established in 1968 in Switzerland. It develops educational programmes for schoolchildren—their diplomas or certificates allow graduates to continue their studies or find employment in any country that has adopted these programmes. According to the organisation’s data as of October 2004, nearly six thousand schools in more than 160 countries around the world used their programmes.

After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the International Baccalaureate published guidance for discussing the war in classrooms. Among other things, it recommended “understanding both sides” and noting “Russia’s fear of NATO expansion so close to its borders.”

About 30 Russian schools, including state schools, were listed on the foundation’s website as having adopted its educational programmes at various points. Among them is the International Gymnasium of the Skolkovo Innovation Centre. Some of these web pages now return a 404 error.