Home — English - Т-инвариант / T-invariant

“This bridge was burned”. Why did young scientists from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus not find a place in the United States?

Fellows of the prestigious Fulbright program faced big problems after the program’s sponsors (IIE and Cultural Vistas) were recognized as undesirable organizations in Russia in March 2024. T-invariant reported on this in detail last summer. What is happening today with young scientists from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine?

American biologist Sergei Mirkin: “People don’t believe that this is happening in the United States today”

American universities are being stripped of government funding. Some universities have announced hiring freezes this year. Others are laying off their staff. Still others – Columbia University, for example – have been left without government grants. We are also seeing interference in the substantive work of science. Why is the Trump administration turning on scientists? T-invariant talked to Tufts University endowment professor, biologist Sergei Mirkin, who has been working in the United States for 36 years.

“We ask for him to have a way to come to Israel before his health deteriorates.” The Israeli mathematical community supported the persecuted scientist

On April 10, the Israeli mathematical community published a statement in support of Russian mathematician Mikhail Volkov, who is being pursued by the FSB, accusing him of financing extremism. Earlier it became known about the initiation of criminal proceedings against the 70-year-old scientist. It also turned out that Volkov was fired “one day” from the Ural Federal University back in February after 48 years of work at the university.

Why Russian scientists are being deported from Sweden and denied the right to enter the Schengen zone

Russian scientists currently in Sweden are increasingly being denied permanent residence permits. And along with the refusal – a ban on entering the Schengen zone for a significant period of time. T-invariant talked to scientists who have been or could be affected by this measure and tried to understand what exactly worries the Swedish Migration Service.

Andrey Soldatov: “Russian security services intimidate to the point of self-censorship”

Alexei Soldatov, a well-known scientist and entrepreneur, one of the founders of Runet, who was convicted in a case of abuse of power, has been sentenced to Ryazan region. In an interview with T-invariant, his son Andrei Soldatov, editor-in-chief of the website “Agentura.ru”, told what may be behind his father’s case, what FSB supervisors at large enterprises and universities are really doing, and why in Russia, despite the large number of convicted scientists and representatives of the IT-sphere, there are no sharashki 2.0.

We Can Buy Anything—Even People and Technology

T-invariant continues its project in which Russian scientists and academics, speaking anonymously, share how their lives and work have changed amid the war and the ever-tightening grip of state control. In this installment, a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences from the Volga Federal District discusses staffing issues, funding challenges in Russian science, and the widespread detachment from the war.

Hirsch Index at Market Rate

T-invariant, co-founder of Dissernet Andrey Rostovtsev and community project coordinator Larisa Melikhova continue their “Plagiarism Navigator”. Through carefully selected cases of international scientific plagiarism, we reveal how academic activity is being faked on a planetary scale. In this third installment, we investigate the story of a prominent Serbian scholar who engaged in both purchased co-authorship and blatant plagiarism.

How Supercomputer Expert Sergei Abramov Defends Himself Against FSB (Federal Security Service) Accusations of Financing Extremism

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.

Russians in and around Trauma

T-invariant continues its series featuring anonymous accounts from Russian scientists and academics on how their lives and work have transformed under wartime conditions and increasing state repression. In this installment, a psychotherapist and candidate of psychological sciences explains why current events are reviving old traumas—and how the suppression of unprocessed history leaves society unprepared for present challenges.

“Sovereign” Means Military: How Russia Militarized AI, Drone, and Cryptography Industries

Behind the facade of Putin’s discussions with technocrats about the threats posed by Western generative chatbots lies the full-scale militarization of Russia’s artificial intelligence sector. T-invariant examines how Russian forces are already using AI to guide kamikaze drones via optical navigation (immune to enemy electronic warfare), refine combat tactics with drone swarms, overhaul military logistics, and repurpose cryptography—now geared more toward cyberattacks than data protection.

The Iran-Bologna Process in Tajikistan

T-invariant, co-founder of Dissernet Andrey Rostovtsev and community project coordinator Larisa Melikhova continue their “Plagiarism Navigator”. Through individual cases of international academic plagiarism, we examine the global-scale imitation of scholarly activity. In this second installment, we focus on Iranian scholars who defended their dissertations in Tajikistan between 2011 and 2013 under the auspices of the Russian Higher Attestation Commission (VAK).

Maria Vorontsova was included in the circle of the largest scientists without regard to scientometrics

Vladimir Putin’s eldest daughter is now publicly positioned as a major scientist with a “world-class laboratory”. Her Hirsch index is extremely low, which did not prevent Vorontsova from winning a large RNF grant on par with the country’s most successful scientists.

“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.

Konstantin Sonin: “Both Putin and Trump Believe That Might Makes Right”

Following Donald Trump’s election and his initial presidential steps, it became abundantly clear: the world will never be the same. Who—or what—can save Ukraine today? Can private businesses support initiatives aiding Ukrainians and Russians opposing the war? Was Navalny doomed to die after the war began? What is the actual impact of international sanctions on Russia? How are Trump and Putin alike? T-invariant discussed these questions with economist Konstantin Sonin, a professor at the University of Chicago.

Russian Science Rode the “Chinese Express” Through Ukraine to Poland

T-invariant, co-founder of Dissernet Andrei Rostovtsev, and community project coordinator Larisa Melikhova are launching “Plagiarism Navigator”. Through select cases of international academic plagiarism, the project reveals how imitation of scholarly activity operates on a planetary scale. The first installment tells the story of a Chinese scholar who defended a dissertation in Kharkiv—a work essentially composed of Ukrainian translations of two Russian-language theses.