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.

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.

The initial court hearings in the case of young physicist Artem Khoroshilov have revealed that, over two and a half years of persecution, FSB officers failed to coherently link their evidence to the charges of “terrorism and extremism.” The prosecution’s exhibits—a 20-year-old “Young Chemist” science kit and ammonium nitrate seized from the apartment of his retired mother—remain as tenuous as the case itself. T-invariant publishes the full transcript of Tamara Khoroshilova’s interrogation, discloses new details from this legally unprecedented and shockingly brutal prosecution, and traces the year-long surveillance of the scientist prior to his arrest.

As the bill granting the FSB control over scientists’ international cooperation advances through the Duma, universities have begun tightening scrutiny of all academic materials and public statements—under the guise of “state secret” checks. Though interagency guidelines on state secrecy were issued to universities over a decade ago, the era of total control is just beginning. Staff at Moscow State University (MSU) shared with T-invariant a new directive threatening to revoke bonuses and stipends for non-compliance. Similar orders have emerged at other institutions.

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. 

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.

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.

We launched exactly two years ago. T-invariant seeks to amplify the voices of scientists who oppose the war and resist archaic mindsets. Since then, these outdated ideologies have increasingly taken hold across continents. We are diligently working to find our own way to combat this. But in this search, it’s vital for us to know we’re not alone. We were delighted to receive birthday messages from our heroes, readers, and colleagues.

During the trial of physicist Oleg Kabov, it emerged that the criminal case had been initiated by two of his former students. One of them, after threatening Kabov, joined the FSB (Federal Security Service of Russia), after which the second student filed a denunciation against his former scientific supervisor. It also became clear that the embezzlement case lacked any financial evidence, and that the allegations regarding the falsification of Kabov’s scientific results had been manufactured by FSB officers. The prosecution is demanding a seven-year prison term, a significant fine, and a three-year prohibition on conducting scientific research. The defendant has asked the judge to reopen the investigation. The judge must now decide whether there is sufficient information to deliver a verdict or if the case should be sent back for further investigation.

The draft law granting the FSB oversight over scientists’ international collaborations appears to be more essential for the Ministry of Education and Science and the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) than for the security service itself. However, the document’s drafters failed to account for the substantial resources required to develop and maintain these “government services for monitoring scientists.” It is already clear that, in its current form, the new legal framework will complicate operations for all parties involved: researchers, officials, and law enforcement. This conclusion was reached by T-invariant after analyzing the proposed amendments to the federal law “On Science and State Scientific and Technical Policy,” along with accompanying assessments from federal agencies, the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center, and the RAS.