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.

Over the past three and a half years of active sanctions policy, only four rectors of Russian universities have been added to Western “blacklists.” The most prominent among them is Nikita Anisimov, only the second rector in the history of the Higher School of Economics (HSE). T-invariant reports on how, under his leadership, HSE has once again outpaced all other universities, but this time — in militarization, promotion of the pro-war ‘Z’ ideology, participation in the Kremlin’s propaganda machine, and direct involvement — by Anisimov himself, his team, and even students — on the front lines and in occupied territories.

Russia’s FSB has opened a criminal case, accusing Mikhail Khodorkovsky and members of the Anti-War Committee of attempting a violent takeover and forming a terrorist organization. The list of the accused includes Eugene Koonin, head of the Evolutionary Genomics Laboratory at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and member of the T-invariant coordinating council, as well as tech entrepreneur Mikhail Kokorich, founder and CEO of Destinus. T-invariant has learned just how unexpected these charges of especially grave crimes were for them and how they might impact their lives.

The push to have the International Baccalaureate (IB) designated as an “undesirable organization” was orchestrated by Anna Kuznetsova, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma (Russia’s lower house of parliament), and, likely, the family of Konstantin Malofeev and Maria Lvova-Belova. It was Kuznetsova who requested for inspections of IB schools by prosecutors and the education oversight authority Rosobrnadzor, leading to administrative cases against teachers and administrators. The “monarchist-patriotic faction” convinced the enforcement agencies that IB schools foster “global citizens” and “emphasize the protection of LGBTQ+ rights.” Within a day, most schools erased any mention of IB and submitted statements to withdraw from the organization.

Trump’s clash with the US judicial system is taking on alarming forms. On June 27, the Supreme Court (in a 6-3 decision along conservative lines) issued a ruling that drastically limits the ability of lower federal judges to block presidential executive orders nationwide. From now on, judges can only block the president’s actions in relation to specific plaintiffs. This ruling marked Trump’s first major court victory of the year. What comes next for America? T-invariant asked lawyer Ekaterina Mishina for clarification.

On July 11, the Pereslavl District Court announced the verdict for Sergei Abramov, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). The court found the scientist guilty of funding extremist activities (Part 1, Article 282.3 of the Russian Criminal Code) and imposed a fine of 150,000 rubles (approximately $1,500). The charges stemmed from seven donations totaling 7,000 rubles (~$70) to the FBK (the transliterated Russian acronym for Fond Borby s Korruptsiyey — the Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by Alexey Navalny). While the legal ordeal has concluded, Abramov’s return to an active professional life remains a distant prospect. In an interview with T-invariant prior to the verdict, Sergei Abramov described how his presence on the “extremists and terrorists” list has led to what he calls, if not a “civil death,” then severe civil disability.

For Russian humanities scholars, any ties to British NGOs have shifted from toxic to criminal. T-invariant has uncovered who became the first to face administrative charges for collaborating with the Oxford Russia Fund. Through the case of a Volgograd professor, the outlet reveals how public trials of philologists—those who “sounded the alarm too late”—are now orchestrated. The story features all the hallmarks of such prosecutions: a department head’s televised repentance on a federal channel and textbooks, published with NGO support, being symbolically dumped outside the British Embassy.

In June 2023, T-invariant published an interview with Mikhail Sokolov, a sociologist of education and science and a professor at the European University in St. Petersburg. Among other topics, the scholar suggested that the war would have little impact on the state of social sciences in Russia. Has his opinion changed two years later? What is happening to the social sciences today, and what lies ahead for them? These questions are now being discussed with Mikhail Sokolov by Sergei Erofeev, a sociologist at Rutgers University (USA) and president of RASA, the global association of Russian-speaking scholars.