European University at St. Petersburg charged with participating in activities of ‘undesirable organization’

The European University at St. Petersburg was subject to two charges for participating in the activities of an “undesirable organization.” The independent outlet Mediazona found these administrative cases on the Dzerzhinsky District Court website.

The outlet first noted that the reason for the charges was not clear, and that court hearing dates had not yet been set.

Later, the Telegram channel Rotonda reported that the reasons for the charges were books in the university’s library. According to the channel, the books in question were published with the support of the “undesirable” Open Society Foundations and the Kennan Institute, which is part of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The university noted that the books were published long before the law on “undesirable organizations,” and that they were placed in a “special closed fund” and not given out to anyone after the law was adopted.

Mediazona also notes that instructors and researchers from the European University at St. Petersburg worked with Central European University in Austria, whose activities Russia’s General Prosecutor designated “undesirable” in October 2023.

In May 2023, BBC News Russia reported that the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office and the country’s federal education watchdog, Rosobrnadzor, launched an unscheduled investigation into the European University at St. Petersburg as part of the government’s ongoing “measures to prevent extremism and terrorism.”