St. Petersburg State University complains to police after embattled alumna and database founder spits at ethics commission

St. Petersburg State University (SPbGU) has submitted a complaint to the Internal Affairs Ministry after an incident involving Alexandra Elbakyan, the founder of the major scientific database Sci-Hub. Yelena Sharygina, the university’s vice rector for security, said Elbakyan behaved aggressively during an ethics commission hearing on December 10. Specifically, she spit at mulcommission’s members. Elbakyan said she had been attacked constantly by SPbGU’s faculty for two years and confirmed that she had spit during the hearing.

It first came to light that an unusual incident had taken place during a hearing of the Commission on Ethics at St. Petersburg State University when an anonymous Internet user posted on the university’s website on December 13. The user asked whether the rumor was true that a female student had spit on an emeritus professor in the course of the meeting. Vice Rector Yelena Sharygina replied that such an incident of “aggressive behavior” had taken place and identified the student as recent M.A. alumna Alexandra Elbakyan. Sharygina indicated that security officers had “stopped the aggression” and that police had been informed of the incident. Meduza was unable to obtain further comment from SPbGU’s press service.

Alexandra Elbakyan told Meduza that on December 10, the commission had gathered to consider her complaint regarding numerous alleged ethics violations committed against her by university employees. She submitted a copy of the complaint to Meduza. It asserts that between 2017 and 2019, while Elbakyan was a master’s student at SPbGU, professors tried to embarrass her publicly and find ways to expel her despite good academic performance. Elbakyan ultimately received a grade of three out of five on her thesis defense, prompting her to complain formally. She felt that her work had been flawed but that the unusually low grade was designed to break her morale and cut her off from further academic work.

According to Elbakyan, the Commission on Ethics repeatedly declined to hear her case. When it did, she said, she argued her position rationally but received a negative response. “I expressed my opinion of that decision by spitting in the chairman’s face,” she said. At that point, she continued, the commission’s members started yelling at her, and when the professor who had been most aggressive toward her at SPbGU stood up and rolled up his sleeves, she spit at him, too.

Elbakyan said she left the hearing room calmly alongside two guards, one of whom said he worked for the university and the other of whom introduced himself as “some kind of director for combating foreign intelligence operations.” “I had hoped that the Commission on Ethics would figure out [why my relationship with my professors developed as it did], but instead, they’re just trying to make me look like an immature, aggressive idiot,” she concluded.