On November 7, 2026, Saint-Denis City Hall in France will host an evening of solidarity with Russian mathematician and political prisoner Azat Miftakhov. The event is being organized by Solidarité FreeAzat and partner associations with the participation of the city’s mayor, Bally Bagayoko. Earlier, the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS) appealed to Gennady Krasnikov, president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, asking him to ensure Miftakhov’s safety after human rights advocates reported that he had been tortured in a penal colony.

The support evening will take place on November 7 at Saint-Denis City Hall, in the Paris suburbs. In an interview with Le Blog de Saint-Denis published on November 5, Solidarité FreeAzat representative Marie-Laetitia Garric Gribinski said that Bally Bagayoko has supported the campaign for Azat Miftakhov’s release since June 2023, when he signed its first appeal.

According to Garric Gribinski, the mayor’s participation should draw additional attention to the mathematician’s situation and help protect him. The organizers hope that international solidarity will contribute to securing his release. The association’s representative also said that in the summer of 2026 Miftakhov won several court rulings in his favor. A court found the investigator’s failure to act on reports of torture unlawful and ordered the violations remedied. A decision was also made to grant the mathematician state protection as a complainant reporting violence. His wife, Yelena, was allowed to visit him several times as a representative defending his rights.

However, Garric Gribinski says Miftakhov’s conditions of detention have changed very little. He is currently being held under a strict disciplinary regime, with limited access to letters, newspapers, books, paper, and writing materials. The association’s representative says his psychological state is a serious cause for concern: he has asked to see a psychiatrist so that antidepressants can be prescribed.

Earlier, on November 4, 2026, the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS) issued a joint appeal to Gennady Krasnikov, president of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The letter was signed by ten representatives of the two organizations, including APS President Brad Marston, APS President-Elect Gabriela González, AMS President Ravi Vakil, and Natalia Berloff, chair of the APS Committee on International Freedom of Scientists.

The letter gives particular attention to reports of torture. According to the information cited by the scientific societies, on April 21, 2026, the day after arriving at the penal colony, Miftakhov was beaten, subjected to electric shocks, and threatened with sexual violence by prison staff and other inmates. The allegations were reported by The Insider, Novaya Gazeta Europe, and Amnesty International, which called for an independent and effective investigation.

Despite his imprisonment, Miftakhov continues to work in mathematics. In 2026, without access to the internet or a scientific library, he completed a proof of a result related to Chui’s conjecture. The paper was published that summer in the French journal Revue de la filière mathématiques. The University of Pisa has invited Miftakhov to present the research at a scientific seminar in 2027.

T-INVARIANT BACKGROUND

The American Physical Society (APS) is one of the world’s largest organizations representing physicists. Founded in 1899, it now has more than 50,000 members worldwide. APS publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including such prominent titles as Physical Review Letters and Physical Review X. More than twenty scientific events are held under its auspices each year. With APS support, meetings between Soviet and American scientists took place in the 1920s, the 1930s, and later decades of the Soviet era. One of the American Physical Society’s prizes is named after physicist Lev Landau. Russian physicists continue to join APS every year.

The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is one of the world’s largest professional organizations for mathematicians. Founded in 1888, it has around 30,000 members worldwide. AMS publishes scientific journals, including the Journal of the American Mathematical Society, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, and Mathematics of Computation, as well as books and monographs in mathematics. The society maintains MathSciNet, an international database of mathematical publications containing millions of research works, and organizes conferences and annual mathematical meetings. AMS awards scientific prizes, supports early-career researchers, and advocates for the professional interests of mathematicians.

The authors of the letter stress that Miftakhov’s continued imprisonment is a loss to mathematics and to science as a whole. They ask that his safety and humane treatment be ensured, that he be given access to medical care, correspondence, and mathematical literature, and that the nonviolent nature of the acts underlying his prosecution be taken into account. Copies of the appeal were sent to the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Human Rights Commissioner in Russia, and the Russian Embassy in the United States.

Earlier, an appeal calling for Miftakhov’s release and an investigation into the reports of torture was signed by 56 organizations from 14 countries. In addition, eleven organizations from five countries sent a letter to Nobel Peace Prize laureates asking them to intervene.

In 2024, the American Physical Society had already appealed to Russian Academy of Sciences President Gennady Krasnikov and Science and Higher Education Minister Valery Falkov in defense of Russian scientists Sergey Abramov and Oleg Kabov, both corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences who were facing criminal prosecution. APS called for the charges against them to be dropped and for the restrictions imposed on them to be lifted.