The FSB is once again summoning scientists who signed an anti-war letter for questioning. And the heads of universities and research institutes are refusing to renew their contracts

The FSB is once again summoning scientists who signed an anti-war letter for questioning. And the heads of universities and research institutes are refusing to renew their contracts

The FSB and the leadership of universities and research institutes are putting pressure on scientists who signed an anti-war letter in 2022, as well as on employees whose surnames appeared in a leaked database of Smart Voting users, T-invariant reports.

Scientists are being summoned for questioning or are being refused contract renewals, employees of universities and research institutes from different regions of the country said.

One scientist from the Urals said that because of his signature under the letter, an FSB officer attached to the university summoned him for a conversation. He asked about the scientist’s attitude toward the war in 2022 and now. According to the scientist, in the four years since he signed the letter, it had caused him no problems, and now removing his signature would be pointless: the FSB officer showed him a printout from an archived copy of the site with the letter from the spring of 2022.

A female employee of a Siberian research institute was summoned for questioning by an FSB representative at Moscow’s request. He asked her where she had got the link to the letter and whom she herself had forwarded it to.

According to T-invariant, the practice of pressuring scientists over opposition views is especially widespread at St. Petersburg State University (SPbU). There, Oleg Shaidulin, the former head of the political department of the local Center “E,” works as deputy vice rector for security.

@meduzalive