Following the invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of Western brands exited Russia. Over the past three-plus years, amid official rhetoric about import substitution, a parallel logistics system has taken shape — one that keeps Russian store shelves stocked with foreign goods and supplies drones and other military equipment with critical components. As the country adapts to a long-term life under sanctions, this parallel economy demands new expertise. Russian universities and other players in the education market have ramped up the production of specialists trained in the fine art of sanctions circumvention.

On July 11, the Pereslavl District Court announced the verdict for Sergei Abramov, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). The court found the scientist guilty of funding extremist activities (Part 1, Article 282.3 of the Russian Criminal Code) and imposed a fine of 150,000 rubles (approximately $1,500). The charges stemmed from seven donations totaling 7,000 rubles (~$70) to the FBK (the transliterated Russian acronym for Fond Borby s Korruptsiyey — the Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by Alexey Navalny). While the legal ordeal has concluded, Abramov’s return to an active professional life remains a distant prospect. In an interview with T-invariant prior to the verdict, Sergei Abramov described how his presence on the “extremists and terrorists” list has led to what he calls, if not a “civil death,” then severe civil disability.

In a previous Plagiarism Navigator investigation, we exposed Iranian scholars who defended stolen Russian dissertations—translated into Tajik—at Tajik universities. They exploited a loophole known as “dissertation tourism,” which offers a backdoor into the global academic community: via Tajikistan and Russia’s Higher Attestation Commission (VAK). Unsurprisingly, Tajik scholars themselves have embraced this backdoor enthusiastically. With the highest number of plagiarized dissertations per capita, Tajikistan tops Dissernet’s global rankings by a wide margin. Today, we examine the career of Kobiljon Khushvakhtzoda—a former provincial accountant who climbed the ranks to become Chairman of Tajikistan’s Academy of Sciences.

In June 2023, T-invariant published an interview with Mikhail Sokolov, a sociologist of education and science and a professor at the European University in St. Petersburg. Among other topics, the scholar suggested that the war would have little impact on the state of social sciences in Russia. Has his opinion changed two years later? What is happening to the social sciences today, and what lies ahead for them? These questions are now being discussed with Mikhail Sokolov by Sergei Erofeev, a sociologist at Rutgers University (USA) and president of RASA, the global association of Russian-speaking scholars.

The initial court hearings in the case of young physicist Artem Khoroshilov have revealed that, over two and a half years of persecution, FSB officers failed to coherently link their evidence to the charges of “terrorism and extremism.” The prosecution’s exhibits—a 20-year-old “Young Chemist” science kit and ammonium nitrate seized from the apartment of his retired mother—remain as tenuous as the case itself. T-invariant publishes the full transcript of Tamara Khoroshilova’s interrogation, discloses new details from this legally unprecedented and shockingly brutal prosecution, and traces the year-long surveillance of the scientist prior to his arrest.

As the bill granting the FSB control over scientists’ international cooperation advances through the Duma, universities have begun tightening scrutiny of all academic materials and public statements—under the guise of “state secret” checks. Though interagency guidelines on state secrecy were issued to universities over a decade ago, the era of total control is just beginning. Staff at Moscow State University (MSU) shared with T-invariant a new directive threatening to revoke bonuses and stipends for non-compliance. Similar orders have emerged at other institutions.

Incident date: May 23, 2025
Violation type: foreign agent
Institution: INION

Donald Trump’s executive order on biosecurity, issued on May 5, 2025, has shocked American scientists: pathogen research has been halted, and DNA and RNA synthesis now requires government approval. This directly threatens vaccine development, genomic research, and even routine medical tests. Geneticist Dmitry Pruss speaks to T-invariant editor Alexander Sergeev about the escalating crisis in U.S. biomedical science, draws parallels with the Soviet past, and explains why these trends are dangerous for the entire world.

T-invariant, co-founder of Dissernet Andrey Rostovtsev and community project coordinator Larisa Melikhova continue their “Plagiarism Navigator”. Through individual cases of international academic plagiarism, we examine the global-scale imitation of scholarly activity. In the fifth installment, we examine the case of Andriy Vitrenko, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Education and Science, whose dissertation and academic papers have been flagged for plagiarism.

Harvard University refused to obey the Trump administration and sued the officials. Why is the whole world watching this conflict? What is being demanded of the university? What is Harvard defending? What role did DEI policy and anti-Semitism play in the attack on academic freedom? T-invariant talked to Eugene Shakhnovich, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University.

In 2015, the archives of the Max Planck Society—one of Germany’s and the world’s leading scientific organizations—revealed human brain specimens illegally obtained in the 1940s. In 2020, documents exposed how the Kiel Institute for the World Economy aided the Wehrmacht’s conquest of Europe. Then, in 2022, Humboldt University published a study detailing how its own researchers had helped plan war crimes. Why, eight decades after WWII and the fall of the Nazi regime, does German academia continue to unearth such horrors? Can one be complicit in crimes without pulling a trigger—simply by optimizing war economies, promoting pseudoscience, or mass-producing politically expedient research—all while claiming that “science is apolitical”? These questions are explored in an investigative report by Natalia Supyan, PhD in Economics and German studies specialist.

Fellows of the prestigious Fulbright program faced big problems after the program’s sponsors (IIE and Cultural Vistas) were recognized as undesirable organizations in Russia in March 2024. T-invariant reported on this in detail last summer. What is happening today with young scientists from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine?