Two years ago, on February 13, 2024, the Appellate Military Court toughened the sentence of publicist, sociologist, and political scientist Boris Kagarlitsky. The scholar, accused of “public calls for terrorism” (in a YouTube video discussing the explosion of the Crimean Bridge), had his previously imposed fine replaced with five years in a general-regime correctional colony. T-invariant explains why one of the most prominent left-wing intellectuals was not left at liberty and why even careful criticism of the authorities in today’s Russia often ends in a prison term.

Boris Tsilevich spent decades advocating for minority rights in PACE, became the first chair of the subcommittee on minority rights, and in 2023 secured — via Latvia’s Constitutional Court — the right to use Russian-language for higher education in private universities. Today he believes the era of minority rights has effectively come to an end. In an interview with T-invariant, Tsilevich explains how the security considerations dismantled the Council of Europe’s minority protection system, why even “ostensibly satisfied” minorities tend toward political separatism, and how the principles of DEI have supplanted multiculturalism.

Russia’s Neiry Group implants electrodes in pigeons’ brains to create remotely controlled “biodrones” that fly longer and blend in better than conventional drones. Founded by advertiser-turned neuro-entrepreneur Alexander Panov, the project has attracted major funding and is tied to scientists at the MSU Institute of Artificial Intelligence, led by Vladimir Putin’s daughter Katerina Tikhonova. T-invariant reveals who profits from the neurotech boom — dubbed “coercive optimism” by academics — and what it can actually deliver in 2026.

On December 19, Alexander Nesterenko — Candidate of Philosophical Sciences and associate professor at Bauman Moscow State Technical University — was sentenced to three years in prison for Ukrainian songs included in his playlist in the VKontakte social network. T-invariant reports how exactly the philosophy department lecturer and amateur historian reacted to his verdict, what he said in his final statement, and what his wife — whom he met at rockabilly jive dance classes shortly before his arrest and married while already in pretrial detention — now plans to do.

Summing up the results of the year as editor-in-chief, I reflect on the path I have traveled in this field over the past five years. At the end of 2019, I accepted the invitation from Pleiades Publishing to lead the journal, which at that time was called Review Journal of Chemistry. I agreed because I firmly believed in the importance of continuing publishing activities and preserving national scientific journals in the countries of the former USSR—especially in Russia, where the main scientific potential of the former superpower remains concentrated.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has started urging students at Russian universities to work as drone operators. But to do so, they must first sign a military service contract. Students are promised lump-sum payments of five million rubles and the option to terminate the contract after just one year. A T-invariant correspondent investigated whether the Defense Ministry’s promises can be trusted.

The DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policy and Trump’s actions to eliminate such initiatives are sparking heated debates among scholars. Some see DEI principles as the politicization of science, a form of censorship, and a violation of meritocracy. Others strongly disagree. T-invariant spoke with sociologist and historian Dmitry Dubrovsky about how DEI mechanisms worked in the United States, why they face so much criticism from the academic community, and what Trump’s policy on inclusion and diversity will lead to.

For the first time in Russian history, a court is about to issue a sentence typically given to real terrorists and serial killers, solely for allegedly intending to commit a crime. State prosecutor Madina Dolgieva has requested 34-year-old physicist Artem Khoroshilov be sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of treason, DDoS attack, and preparation of sabotage. To date, this is the record term requested for a member of the scientific community. “The system is turning feral — especially in cases related to the ‘SVO’. And the claim that the defendant’s high intellect is an aggravating circumstance has left us all reeling,” say scientists interviewed by T-invariant. (‘SVO’ is the official euphemism for the invasion of Ukraine. — T-invariant)

In several European countries simultaneously, Russian students have been banned from studying IT-related specialties. Cases have also emerged of restrictions on admission (for example, to the politically sensitive program “Arctic Shipping”). Previously, export-control procedures applied only to university and research-center employees, visiting researchers, and collaboration participants; now the same checks are being applied to students. For instance, the University of Bonn has blocked 65 students from Russia from accessing IT courses. Similar measures have been taken against students from China and Iran. Human-rights advocates call this outright discrimination on the basis of nationality: education has never fallen under EU sanctions. T-invariant spoke with students affected by the restrictions and examined how export control works in German universities in both theory and practice.

How did universities stop being spaces of freedom, politics turn into hatred, and art become a lifestyle? Why has everyone suddenly become obsessed with postcolonial studies, and what is AI still incapable of? And why, amid such tectonic shifts, write books about Ancient Greece? T-Invariant spoke with Mikhail Yampolsky, recipient of the George Gamow Award founded by the Russian American Science Association (RASA-America).

November 15–16, 2025, in New Jersey, the Gamow Prize ceremony, established by RASA, will take place. One of this year’s laureates is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California, Anna Krylov. In October, she announced a boycott of the Nature Publishing Group, refusing to peer-review a manuscript for the journal Nature Communications — due to disagreement with the policy of promoting the social justice agenda. T-invariant spoke with Anna Krylov about why politics has no place in science, what scientists can be canceled for, and how to resist scientific censorship.

In August 2025, the promising Target Malaria project aimed at combating malaria using modified mosquitoes was abruptly shut down in Burkina Faso. The country’s government sealed the laboratories, destroyed the insects, and sprayed insecticides, labeling the experiment a threat to sovereignty. Many scientists from around the world called this decision a catastrophe: gene drive technology could have permanently rid Africa of malaria, which claims 600,000 lives annually. T-Invariant has uncovered how a Russian-coordinated disinformation campaign, anti-Western sentiments, and local activists led to the halt of one of the continent’s most promising scientific projects.