Highlights
- More than 120 academics and researchers sign open letter calling on Australian universities to consider special enrolment options for students from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
- While students in Ukraine can no longer study due to Russia's military aggression, Russian universities are expelling students for participating in anti-war rallies and making posts on social media.
- Letter co-author Dr Slava Kitaeff says European universities made a similar offering of places to expelled students in Belarus following the presidential election in 2020.
Nika Samusik is a journalist with independent Russian news outlet Sota.Vision and a third-year student of the Faculty of Biology at St Petersburg State University.
She told SBS Russian that she was detained during an anti-war protest on 24 February, the day the war in Ukraine started.
Just like journalists covering the protests in Khabarovsk in 2020, she was detained despite wearing a press vest and providing police with her editorial assignment and media worker's certificate.
While Ms Samusik spent 24 hours in a detention centre, a protocol was drawn up against her as a participant in an unapproved protest.
She explained that her university immediately moved to expel her and other students.
Uncoordinated action against the special military operation of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine on Manezhnaya Square. 13.03.2022 Russia, Moscow Source: AAP Image/Anatoliy Zhdanov/Kommersant/Sipa USA
“On 6 March, the members of the Student Council revealed the information that orders for the expulsion of 13 people were ready, the guilt of most of them had not even been proven yet. Many had not yet passed the courts of appeal, and for me - even the court of first instance,” Ms Samusik said.
It was only after the story had been covered by independent media that the university decided to wait for the court's decisions before expelling students.
“Since then, about 20 more students have been asked to explain why they’ve been detained at anti-war protests. I understand that the university is preparing draft documents to expel them too.”
Expelled for supporting Kremlin Critic Alexey Navalny
Repression of protesting students is nothing new for Russian universities.
Vera Inozemtseva, a political science student, was expelled from Astrakhan State University last year after participating in a rally in support of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Mr Navalny was arrested after flying back to Russia from Germany on 17 January 2021, five months after he was nearly killed by a Novichok nerve agent.
A few days after Mr Navalny's arrest, Ms Inosemtseva participated in a rally on 23 January.
Russian opposition leader and activist Alexei Navalny is seen on a monitor screen during an offsite court session in the penal colony in Vladimir region, Russia Source: AAP Image/EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV
“After the rally, I noticed a police car in front of my building. People in civilian clothes came out of there, grabbed me and threw me into the car, then took away my phone and tried to pull the hat over my face,” Ms Inosemtseva told SBS Russian.
Several days after Ms Inosemtseva was taken to the police station, she found out from social media that there had been an order for her expulsion from the university.
After a year of litigation, the second-year graduate student of the political science faculty still does not know if she will ever be able to continue her studies.
“Of course, I appealed. I went through the first instance court, then the second instance court. I won in the cassation court, but the case was returned for retrial to the district court of first instance.
"I honestly don't have much hope.”
Expelled for stories on Instagram
Since the beginning of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine more than 15,000 people have been detained in Russia for participating in anti-war protests, according to the OVD-Info protests monitoring group.
Among that number are students who have been forced out of universities.
The few remaining independent media outlets in Russia write that students are being expelled, or threatened with expulsion, for attending anti-war protests or for making anti-war posts on social media.
Novaya Gazeta reported on students expelled from the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in Moscow for publishing stories about the war in Ukraine on Instagram (the social media giant is now banned in Russia along with Facebook).
'Young people who are our conscience'
In March, more than 120 academics and researchers from many of Australia's top institutions signed an open letter directed to the provosts and vice-chancellors of Australian universities.
The letter calls on the universities to help those students from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus who cannot continue their studies because of war or repressive regimes.
“We are calling on all Australian universities to consider special enrolment options and scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate students who cannot continue their studies in Ukraine due to the Russian military aggression,” the letter said.
Chemistry teaching and Research Building at Monash University. Architect: Lyons 2015 Source: Flickr/Rob Deutscher CC BY 2.0
Dr Slava Kitaeff, Associate Director eResearch at Monash University, is one of the authors of the open letter.
Having worked in higher education almost all his life, Dr Kitaeff said he "took very personally the news about the expulsions of students in Russia who spoke out against the war."
He said Australian universities can look to the actions of European universities in offering placements and scholarships to expelled Belarusian students following the presidential election there in 2020.
Dr Kitaeff said the support should not only be extended to students in Ukraine who cannot continue their studies due to the Russian military aggression, but to students from from Russia and Belarus who stand against war.
Dr Slava Kitaeff Source: Supplied by S.Kitaeff
These are the young people who are our future. These are the young people who are our conscience.
“Therefore, such an initiative arose to turn to Australian universities with a proposal to provide such students with special opportunities, special scholarships and special ways of getting education, following the example of European universities, which began to accept Belarusian students who were expelled from universities.”
