Over the past 14 years, nearly a hundred heads of Russian universities have been implicated in criminal cases. This was reported by the publication T-Invariant.

According to a study by T-Invariant, between 2012 and 2025, 97 criminal cases were initiated against heads of higher education institutions in Russia. The majority of the charges involved economic offenses.

The data shows that the peak of criminal prosecutions against university rectors occurred in 2021, with 17 cases opened. The second-highest number was recorded in the current year, 2025, with 12 such cases already documented.