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The FSB has resumed summoning scholars who signed an open letter against the war in Ukraine in 2022 for questioning, reports Meduza, citing T-invariant. University and academic institute staff from various regions across Russia told the outlet about the situation.
A scholar in the Urals—a major region in Russia—was summoned for a conversation by an FSB officer attached to their university. The officer asked about the scholar’s views on the war in 2022 and their views now. The security service employee also showed them an archived copy of the page containing the anti-war letter.
A staff member of a research institute in Siberia was called in by an FSB representative after a request from Moscow. She was asked where she obtained the link to the letter, who sent it to her, whether she had forwarded it to others, and whether she had posted it on social media. Another female staff member at the institute was summoned for a similar conversation the same day.
According to those who spoke with T-invariant, more than four years had passed since they signed the letter before facing any consequences. However, the FSB had previously been interested in other signatories: in the winter of 2024, scholars were summoned for interviews, including through university and institute management. Some were threatened with criminal prosecution.
Additionally, T-invariant found that at some universities, staff have been denied contract renewals after being placed on internal lists of “unreliable” individuals. Several former staff of Saint Petersburg State University reported that, because they ended up on such lists, their contracts were not renewed.
One former staff member at St Petersburg State University described this system as a “traffic light”: according to her, academics are sorted into “yellow” and “red” lists. She herself was included on such a list partly because she registered on the “Smart Voting” website in 2021. Another source told T-invariant that, to be removed from the list, staff were offered the option to donate money to the “Defenders of the Fatherland” fund or become lecturers for the “Knowledge” society. The outlet’s source also reported similar denials of contract renewals at the St Petersburg campus of the Higher School of Economics and at the European University.
The open letter from Russian scholars and science journalists opposing the war appeared after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Over 8,500 people signed it.