On May 19, 2026, Russian law enforcement arrived at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and interrogated several scholars concerning allegations of fraud connected to a new complete translation of Aristotle's works into Russian. Svetlana Mesyats was detained for four days before being charged and placed under house arrest over a reporting error in a state grant.
The institute has resisted Kremlin-aligned pressure since 2021, when loyalists backed by "Orthodox oligarch" Konstantin Malofeyev attempted to install a compliant director, but the scientists resisted.
This did not happen in a vacuum. On March 3, 2026, Russia designated the Russian-American Science Association (RASA) an "undesirable organization." Under Russian law, individuals affiliated with such entities can face up to four years in prison; organizers of related activities risk up to six.
Since then, many among the organisation’s leadership — including current president Sergey Erofeyev and former presidents Alexander Kabanov and Igof Efimov — have been declared “foreign agents.”
None of these people did anything new recently. They have been outspoken against the Russian invasion of Ukraine right from its first day. They haven’t changed, but something new is moving inside the Russian state machine that is turning methodically against scientists. Inside Russia, scientists are regularly being prosecuted for assumed treason, just for performing their regular work, like publishing internationally or cooperating with foreign colleagues.
