Mikhail Verbitsky - Т-инвариант / T-invariant

Mikhail Verbitsky

Mikhail Verbitsky
Date of incident: November 21, 2024
Type of violation: criminal prosecution
Institution: National Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics of Brazil (IMPA)

Summary: On November 21, 2024 a criminal case was opened in Russia against mathematician Mikhail Verbitsky (also known as blogger Misha Verbitsky) for calls for terrorism, RBK reports. “A criminal case was opened against Mikhail Verbitsky, born in 1969, under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public calls for terrorist activity),” an unnamed source told RIA Novosti.

Details: Verbitsky is abroad. He left Russia in 2015, Kommersant reports. Mikhail Verbitsky is a mathematician, PhD from Harvard University, taught at many Russian and foreign universities, including the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

January 10, 2025 Mikhail Verbitsky was added to the register of “terrorists and extremists” of Rosfinmonitoring.

Sources: RBC, RIA Novosti, Kommersant.

21 November 2024

Et Cetera

“If DOGE plans go through, U.S. scientific leadership will end.” American scientist – on Musk’s health care reform

In the coming days, the U.S. Senate is expected to confirm the new director of the National Institutes of Health. The key institution of American science has come under pressure from the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), which is headed by Elon Musk. Why the reforms initiated by Donald Trump’s people are reminiscent of the situation in Germany in the 1930s and how the DOGE plans threaten the development of science – the head of one of the laboratories of the National Institute of Health told T-invariant.

Co-authors. Who and How Fabricated the Case Against Physicist Oleg Kabov?

During the trial of physicist Oleg Kabov, it emerged that the criminal case had been initiated by two of his former students. One of them, after threatening Kabov, joined the FSB (Federal Security Service of Russia), after which the second student filed a denunciation against his former scientific supervisor. It also became clear that the embezzlement case lacked any financial evidence, and that the allegations regarding the falsification of Kabov’s scientific results had been manufactured by FSB officers. The prosecution is demanding a seven-year prison term, a significant fine, and a three-year prohibition on conducting scientific research. The defendant has asked the judge to reopen the investigation. The judge must now decide whether there is sufficient information to deliver a verdict or if the case should be sent back for further investigation.

T-invariant and CISRUS launched a chronicle of violations of the rights and freedoms of scientists and teachers

Dismissals, fines, stigmatization, criminal cases, torture — all this awaits in Russia those who are trying to tell the truth, oppose war, protect peace, criticize the authorities or simply honestly do their academic and teaching work .

T-invariant and the CISRUS Centerwill work together to chronicle the persecution of scientists in Russia for as long as it continues. If you have witnessed or been the target of academic harassment, please contact us at [email protected].

The chronicle records violations of the rights and freedoms of scientists and teachersas citizens of the Russian Federation, as well as violations of their academic rights and freedoms by the leadership of their scientific institution.