In Russia, scientists were forced to report on their personal lives amid repression

Scientists in Russia are systematically imprisoned for treason.

In Russia, scientists began to be checked for reliability after a series of cases of “state treason” .

Telegram channel “Nenauchny Horodok” published a copy of the letter that the management of the Institute of Oil and Gas Geology and Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences sent to its employees. They were asked to indicate all persons with whom they constantly live in the same residential area, regardless of kinship and place of residence.

The institute’s officials explained the necessity of collecting personal information with the “geopolitical situation” and referred to the order of the government of the Novosibirsk region. The information itself is allegedly needed in order to use it in case of evacuation of the population in emergency situations.

As The Moscow Times writes , this process can be considered in the context of the criminal prosecution of scientists, whose arrests have swept across Russia. Over the past year, the authorities have arrested many scientists in cases of treason.

Some of these scientists are in pretrial detention centers, some have already received prison terms, there are several cases when scientists died in pretrial detention centers without waiting for the sentence.

Political repression in Russia

There are special laws in Russia that prohibit criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and generally saying anything bad about the Russian army or mentioning Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Recently, in the Russian Federation, it was forbidden to “discredit” even Wagner’s mercenaries.

However, the Russians themselves, it seems, are not at all against such a situation. They actively write denunciations, accusing each other of an anti-Russian position. Denunciations are written even on children .

At the same time, the Russian police engage in real arbitrariness even without any “discrediting laws”. The other day, security forces broke into Moscow bars, the owners of which are suspected of having a pro-Ukrainian position. Police officers threatened visitors with sledgehammers and electric shockers, forcing them to sing racist songs .

(C)UNIAN 2023