A verdict is expected imminently for Sergei Abramov, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). On March 25, he turned 68, but the last two years have been erased by the FSB: Abramov stands accused of financing extremism—specifically, seven donations totaling 7,000 rubles to Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). The trial, now dragging on for nearly a year, has seen the scientist attempting to prove that the prosecution failed to establish who authorized the payments or their intended recipient. He has also challenged the validity of a linguistic analysis of his Facebook posts conducted by a bachelor’s-degree law graduate. Abramov faces up to eight years in prison, and his family fears he may not survive incarceration.
The Pereslavl court in Yaroslavl area is preparing to deliver its verdict in the case of Dr. Sergei Abramov. By April 10, 2025, it will have been two years since the RAS corresponding member—a leading expert in supercomputing—was accused of financing extremism and later added to Rosfinmonitoring’s list of extremists and terrorists. All his personal accounts, as well as those of legal entities linked to him (including several supercomputing technology firms), were frozen. During the investigation, the elderly scientist endured pretrial detention, house arrest, and forced confinement in a psychiatric hospital, causing his health to deteriorate sharply. Criminal cases involving donations to FBK rarely end in acquittals; in recent years, Russian courts have taken an increasingly harsh stance, with actual prison terms becoming the norm.
Background
Sergei Abramov was born in 1957 in Moscow. He graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1980 and has worked at the A.P. Ershov Institute of Informatics Systems (RAS) since 1986, serving as its director from 2003 to 2022. For years, he simultaneously headed the institute and served as rector of the Pereslavl University established under its auspices. A specialist in system programming and IT (supercomputing, telecommunications, and meta-computation theory), he holds a doctorate in physics and mathematics and became a corresponding member of RAS in 2006. Previously, he led Russia’s SKIF and SKIF-GRID supercomputer development programs (a joint project with Belarus). Abramov claims the FSB had previously investigated him for treason (read his detailed interview with T-invariant), but ultimately dropped the charges.
Where There Is No Reason, Law Is Helpless
In March 2025, Abramov delivered extensive testimony during multi-hour court hearings. He insists the investigation materials fail to establish who, when, where, or how the transactions from his account were made – let alone whether they were directed to FBK. Witnesses for the defense, including colleagues from his institute and a Sberbank expert, supported his claim that the transfers were unauthorized.
Abramov argues the investigation neglected to prove the core allegation: that money was sent to FBK. He cited the case of Alexei Konovalov from Magadan, who received a 500,000-ruble fine in a similar prosecution. Konovalov’s conviction was included in Abramov’s case file. According to the scientist, Konovalov’s case involved telecom data pinpointing the time and location of the act, internet activity logs (including FBK website visits), and a direct link between the online activity and the transfer. By contrast, Abramov’s case lacks evidence of the donation’s timing, location, IP/MAC addresses, or the identity of the person who initiated it.
A Good Argument Is Half the Battle
Abramov also disputes the prosecution’s use of his Facebook posts as evidence of “extremist leanings,” criticizing the linguistic analysis as flawed. He pointed out that the examination was conducted by Anna Yefimova, a recent law graduate from Yaroslavl State University with no formal qualifications in linguistic forensics. Yefimova, an employee of the Yaroslavl FSB’s forensics unit, analyzed 24 posts from Abramov’s Facebook, focusing particularly on a September 1, 2021, post: “Last time, I argued with a skeptic about Smart Voting. The prize went to FBK. Anyone game today?”
Yefimova concluded this text proved Abramov “transferred money to the extremist organization FBK.” Abramov rejected this, identifying 17 violations of forensic standards in her report.
Into Court You Go, Wallet in Hand
The case took another bizarre turn when prosecutors initially claimed the donations were made via PayPal—despite FBK’s website not supporting PayPal. Investigators still examined Abramov’s PayPal account. Later, evidence emerged that the transactions used Stripe, but the case file only included bank records with a generic <merchant ID (***GYKY) and Wells FargoBank>. The investigation bases its entire accusation on nothing more than a Merchant ID appearing in the payment metadata.” Abramov argued this ID was shared by all NGOs (non-governmental organisations) using Stripe in 2021—around 20,000 organizations, including FBK—making it impossible to identify the recipient without Stripe’s cooperation, which investigators never sought.
“Every single transaction – and how many are there? Millions? Billions? – processed for all Stripe client companies goes through the same payment gateway webpage and consequently carries the identical MerchantID ***GYKY. This information alone cannot identify the ultimate recipient of funds; it merely confirms the payment was processed through Stripe’s service. Payment to whom? Unknown! Stripe should have been contacted for this information. Yet this was never done,” Abramov explained.
A Sberbank technical specialist, Denis Nosachyov, testified for the prosecution but conceded that matching merchant IDs did not confirm the payee’s identity. “The investigation never established who ultimately received the funds in these seven transactions. There’s no proof it was FBK or “Navalny’s team”,” Abramov stated.
Silence Is Golden
T-invariant has repeatedly noted the near-total silence from RAS and the broader scientific/IT community regarding Abramov’s case. However, several prominent academics, including RAS member and physicist Mikhail Danilov, eventually submitted statements in his defense. Earlier, T-invariant reported on an open letter from the American Physical Society, a brief appeal by the informal “July 1 Club” of scientists, and a collective petition from participants of the 2023 National Supercomputing Forum.
Rights advocates believe the academic establishment’s reticence stems from the case’s political nature: unlike, say, the case of Oleg Kabov (also pursued by the FSB but lacking “red flags”), Abramov’s charges involve supporting FBK and Navalny.
Abramov’s prosecution is unprecedented in multiple ways. He is the highest-ranking academic (a RAS member and longtime head of a major research institute) charged under political statutes. The FSB also revived Soviet-era punitive psychiatry, subjecting him to two weeks in a mental hospital. Yet he is far from alone: nearly 100 people now face charges for “extremist donations,” many for trivial sums or gestures (e.g., writing in snow, donating 200 rubles). A recent landmark case in Dolgoprudny saw programmer Alexei Malyarevsky sentenced to seven years for a $150 donation—twice the amount in Abramov’s case.
Abramov is an atypical academic leader, as his Facebook (scrutinized by the FSB and debated in court) shows. He insists he is no opposition figure but a longtime state loyalist, having advised government bodies like the State Duma’s IT expert council and the Defense Ministry’s AI task force. “The narrative in my case is: ‘He disliked the authorities and state policies.’ Guys, I helped form those policies!” he told the court.
Abramov faces the outcome with irony and optimism: “If you ask my prediction, I’ll repeat what I’ve said these past two years: Russia is a country of unlimited possibilities. Everything is possible!”