Press Release, 17.10.2017

Yabloko sent applications to Public Prosecutor General and the Investigative Committee

Sergei Mitrokhin, head of the Yabloko Center for Anti-Corruption Policy, sent appeals to Public Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin demanding that the actions of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in granting the title of the doctor of history to Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky should be investigated.

Despite the fact that Prof.Alexander Borisov and Prof. Vladimir Lavrov were indicated in the abstract of the thesis of the Minister of Culture as his official opponents for his dissertation paper “Problems of Objectivity in the Coverage of Russian History of the Second Half of the 15-17 Centuries”, in their interview to Novaya Gazeta on October 16, 2017, they stated that they had not been opponents of the thesis.

In addition, two members of the previous Expert Council (2007-2013), which had to consider the dissertation paper by Medinsky, stated that the Council did not prepare a positive response on it.

“This case is not about technical inaccuracies, but about possible forgery from the Ministry of Education. Doctor of History Medinsky would not have existed without the active participation of officials from the Ministry of Education and Science,” Center’s lawyer Alexei Chumakov said.

“I consider it absolutely unacceptable that the Higher Attestation Commission and the Ministry of Education promote the advancement of pseudo-scientific views, doing both illegal and morally unacceptable actions, instead of supporting the Russian science. If we do not pay attention to this practice, it can harm our science,” Sergei Mitrokhin said.

In view of this Mitrokhin demands that the Public Prosecutor General and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation should check the actions of unidentified employees of the Higher Attestation Commission under the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for the presence of the offense under Article 292 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Office Fraud”.