The FSB has been persecuting members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Abramov and Oleg Kabov for several years now. Their criminal cases are so unprecedented (even against the backdrop of other impressive wartime trials in Russia) that the American Physical Society, one of the largest in the scientific world, has stood up for them. Its representatives believe that the health and lives of their Russian colleagues are at risk, and have written letters to the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Gennady Krasnikov, and the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Valery Falkov. T-invariant publishes excerpts from the letters, reveals the context of the high-profile criminal trials, and recalls that several elderly scientists accused by the FSB have died in pretrial detention in recent years.
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The American Physical Society (APS) is one of the world’s largest organizations uniting physicists. The society was founded in 1899 and today has more than 50 thousand members worldwide. APS publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including such well-known ones as Physical Review Letters and Physical Review X. More than twenty scientific events are held annually under the auspices of the society. With the support of the APS, meetings of Soviet and American scientists were held in the 1920s, 1930s and subsequent years of the existence of the USSR. One of the awards of the American Physical Society is named after physicist Lev Landau. Every year, Russian physicists become members of the APS.
In their letters, the American Physical Society asks Krasnikov and Falkov to provide effective assistance to the two prominent scientists. The first letter concerns Sergey Abramov — a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of the leaders of the supercomputer industry in Russia, against whom a criminal case was opened a year and a half ago. The second letter is related to the case of Oleg Kabov, a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a renowned thermal physicist, a specialist who has received international recognition in the field of mechanics, thermodynamics, heat flows and evaporation, against whom the FSB opened a criminal case two years ago. Both letters are available to T-invariant.
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The letters are signed by several APS presidents. First of all, by the president of Young-Kee Kim. She is a leading expert in particle physics, works at the University of Chicago and has extensive experience in experiments at CERN. The letter was also signed by Robert Rosner (an astrophysicist who served as director of the Argonne National Laboratory), renowned Harvard physicist John Doyle, and others.
Young-Kee Kim, President of the American Physical Society
Robert Rosner, astrophysicist, director of the Argonne National laboratories
John Doyle, Professor of Physics at Harvard University
As T-invariant was told by the Chairman of the American Physical Society Committee on International Freedom of Scientists, Kenny Breuer, the APS leadership, on behalf of its members, wrote letters to the leaders of Russian science to express concern about the legal charges against Abramov and Kabov. American colleagues urge them to drop these charges and release the scientists from supervision. More than a month has passed since the appeal. According to T-invariant, neither the APS nor Sergei Abramov and Oleg Kabov received a response to these letters from the leadership of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science.
Kenny Breuer, Chairman of the American Physical Society Committee on International Freedom of Scientists
Fake Donation: The Case of Sergei Abramov
The letter from the American Physical Society notes that “despite evidence of his innocence, Dr. Abramov has been charged with involvement in extremist activities. Over the past year, Dr. Abramov has been under house arrest and, at the request of the FSB, has been held in a psychiatric hospital in conditions that appear to be punitive in nature rather than motivated by medical necessity.” Let us recall that Sergei Abramov was indeed placed on New Year’s Eve 2024 for two weeks in the Yaroslavl Clinical Psychiatric Hospital for an inpatient sanity examination. Following his stay in the clinic, the scientist gave T-invariant diary entries analyzing his experience in this punitive system. At the end of January, he received the results of the examination declaring his full sanity and gave a detailed interview T-invariant.
APS also expresses concern about the health of Abramov, who turned 67 during the investigation and suffers from a number of cardiovascular diseases. In addition, leading American physicists state that “the financial donations to the anti-government groups that Abramov is accused of were not made by him or with his consent.” As previously reported by T-invariant, the scientist’s case involves seven donations totaling $75, which Abramov allegedly sent to the account of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Alexei Navalny.
At the same time, the scientist’s defense insists that the case does not include the time and place of the subscription, and the device itself, IP address, and MAC address of the device from which the transfers were made are unknown. The recipient’s acquiring bank has not been established. The lawyers also insist that the transfers were made without Abramov’s knowledge.
Theycite data from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation: in 2021, more than a million “banking transactions were made without the client’s consent.” Experts note that during Putin’s new term, people have started to get extremely tough sentences for donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (for example, seven years for $150).
International reaction as an element of justice: the case of Oleg Kabov
In a letter on the case of Oleg Kabov, the American Physical Society writes that it has studied numerous professional expert opinions that prove that “there was no fraud on an especially large scale.” American physicists state that “for a year and a half, Oleg Kabov could not engage in professional activities, according tobecause he was kept in custody and under house arrest with a number of restrictions on his actions.” APS also expresses serious concern about the health of the scientist (he is 68 years old) and notes that his scientific reputation has been unjustifiably damaged.
Oleg Kabov has been charged with large-scale fraud under Article 159 (part 4) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for the fact that — in the opinion of the FSB investigator — the scientist falsified the results of a scientific study and embezzled 7,268,424 rubles paid to his laboratory as a bonus by the Ministry of Science. According to thermal physics experts, the charge was based on an unprofessional assessment of the scientific work, and the conclusion was made by experts who have no relation to thermal physics. T-invariant wrote more about the Kabov case here.
“We perceived the letter from American physicists as an element of justice and confirmation that Oleg Aleksandrovich’s reputation in the global scientific community is not in doubt,” the accused’s wife Elena Bykovskaya told T-invariant. “After all, Kabov is not a member of the American Physical Society. And this is not a manifestation of corporate solidarity, but independent and purely professional support.”
Cambridge University Professor Natalia Berlova declined to comment to T-invariant as a member of the American Physical Society Committee on International Freedom of Scientists, citing the confidentiality of the process. But she personally noted that scientists from different countries share common values and goals that bring them together much more than ties with businessmen or politicians in their own countries. Therefore, mutual support in the scientific community is especially important.
And one of the goals of these letters is to show that Russian scientists are not isolated, no matter how much politicians would like to present it that way, – says Berlova. – The other day, Vladimir Putin gave instructions to invite foreign scientists to Russia, provide them with housing and create good working conditions. I note that Oleg Kabov was one of these scientists who returned from Belgium in 2013. And now, on the basis of absurd accusations, he is deprived of his freedom and the opportunity to engage in science.
“When my Western colleagues hear the stories of Kabov, Abramov, and scientists arrested for hypersonic research, they often ask: “Why? What’s the point? After all, these arrests harm Russian science itself and, therefore, the country as a whole.” There are probably only two versions: either the FSB is full of outright and malicious saboteurs of the interests of the Russian state, or following recent events (the exchange of foreign journalists), scientists are going to be used as an exchange fund (I wonder at what rate?). So scientists who responded to the call of the Russian authorities should choose which option is closer to them,” Berlova also notes. 
“Navalny is a black mark”
According to the “Chronicle of the Persecution of Scientists”, five corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been persecuted by the authorities in the past two years. Criminal cases have been opened against Sergei Abramov, Oleg Kabov, and Alexander Shiplyuk. Valery Garbuzov was fired from his job. Yulia Sineokaia left Russia. In total, since 2011, the list of political prisoners, according to human rights activist Sergei Davidis, has included more than 150 scientists, three of whom have already died.
Under pressure from the repressive laws of recent years, civil society and scientific circles, including the leadership of the Russian Academy of Sciences, have not been publicly active in protectingpersecuted members of the Academy. With the exception of rare and important examples.
Only the National Supercomputer Forum (of which Abramov was one of the founders) publicly spoke out in defense of Abramov, who took part in the creation of a large number of domestic supercomputers that made it into the world’s TOP-500. In November 2023, at the last conference, a decision was made, signed by all the experts present. In accordance with paragraph 7, a collective letter from the forum participants was sent to a number of authorities (from the FSB Investigative Department to the Russian Presidential Administration).
All of the interlocutors at the Russian Academy of Sciences interviewed by T-invariant refer to Gennady Krasnikov’s verbal assurances that he is keeping a close eye on every case of persecution of Academy members.
“I have no idea whether Krasnikov is doing anything. According to him, he works on each such case. One thing is certain: he is the only chance to influence the situation. Many of my colleagues think so. I don’t really understand what we, ordinary scientists, can do. There is lawlessness in the country, which affects everyone: both scientists and journalists. Many of us think that we can harm the situation. These are such thoughts – sad and disgusting,” one of the Academy members told T-invariant on condition of anonymity.
According to him, the Abramov case is different from the Kabov case. “I know for sure that the Academy’s management is doing a lot on the Kabov case. It’s different with Abramov. Here they say: this is not a question for scientists, why are you interfering? With Kabov, professional expertise is important and it was done. But here we cannot influence,” the scientist explains the logic of the RAS leadership.
The key problem, according to the scientists interviewed by the editorial board, is that Abramov is involved in the “FBK case.”
“FBK, Navalny – this is very toxic. No one wants to get involved. Academic institutions are trying to get rid of scientists who have somehow expressed their anti-war position, and here we are talking about a person who was under criminal investigation, and even connected with the FBK. This is a black mark. No one will get involved. There is a second reason: people’s attitude to the modern Russian government and what it does has entered a qualitatively new state. “Hopes to resolve issues positively, to find some justice are gone forever,” says T-invariant’s interlocutor.
In the case of Oleg Kabov, on the contrary, there were many Russian scientists who tried to influence the course of the criminal case. Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.Yu. Varaksin and Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences P.V. Skripov made a conclusion based on the results of the Federal Targeted Program project, in the improper implementation of which Kabov was accused. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Robert Nigmatulin and Doctor of Technical Sciences Bulat Nigmatullin played a huge role in Kabov’s defense: both wrote letters to the RINKCE, criticized the examination, on the basis of which the criminal case against Kabov was initiated, and also repeatedly publicly spoke in his defense. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and former Vice President of the Academy of Sciences Alexey Khokhlov regularly writes about the Kabov case in his Telegram channel Telegram channel.
Thus, the letter from American physicists is another step in publicly defending their colleagues and influencing the Russian authorities in a situation where the Russian judicial system is completely under pressure from law enforcement agencies and does not give reason to hope for a fair decision.
Text: Editorial T-invariant
Editors 5.08.2024