Press Release, 24.12.2025

Photo by Alexander Kazakov, Kommersant

It was reported today that Rosobrnadzor [the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science] has suspended the licence of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, also known as Professor Teodor Shanin’s University. For the years since its foundation in 1995, the university has become one of the best Russian universities for humanities.

The campaign against Professor Shanin’s university has been going on for almost ten years: criminal cases have been opened against the rector and staff, and lecturers have been declared “foreign agents”. In November 2025, Rosobrnadzor stripped the university of its accreditation.

Yabloko Party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov demands (https://eng.yabloko.ru/37065-2/#more-37065 ) to stop persecuting the university and  restore its licence and accreditation.

“The elimination of independent universities, the imposition of state ideology and uniformity in the education system are depriving our country of a future and destroying humanities education in Russia. We are convinced that university autonomy, academic freedoms and openness to the world, and international educational and scholarly exchanges are in the vital interests of Russia and its citizens,” Rybakov’s appeal runs.

The Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences brought world-class educational standards to Russia and remained one of the last islands of freedom and autonomy in Russia.