Moscow university administrator bans student journal from festival after it invites signatures for letter to political prisoners

Update: Oleg Solodukhin has announced that Doxa has been banned from participating in the university's September 5 celebration.

The administration of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics has threatened to ban the student journal Doxa from a university celebration at Gorky Park on September 5, if the editors refuse to “depoliticize” the activities they plan to conduct at their booth during the event. 

On the evening of September 4, writing on its Telegram channel, the journal invited students attending the celebration to come to its booth and sign a letter addressed to Russia’s political prisoners. Doxa also announced that it would quiz people on their knowledge of their rights when being arrested.

A few hours after the journalist posted this announcement, Oleg Solodukhin, the acting director of the university’s Communications Policy Department, contacted Doxa’s editors and demanded that they cancel the events they’d announced on social media, explaining that these actions “violate the university’s Declaration of Values, in particular, the principle of political neutrality.” 

According to the journal’s editors, however, their application to participate in the school celebration was submitted and approved back in April. A week ago, moreover, the students met with Higher School of Economics administrators and also agreed on the new activities. Doxa says it won’t pull the letter or quiz.

The journal Doxa has organized assistance for university students arrested and jailed after Moscow’s unpermitted opposition protest on July 27, including “Moscow Case” Higher School of Economics student Egor Zhukov.