On May 21, searches were conducted at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences as part of a criminal case involving fraud on an especially large scale. This was reported by the pro-government Telegram channel Zapiski Traditsionalista and the philosophy community channel Philosophy Today.
According to those channels, institute staff member Svetlana Mesyats was placed under house arrest. As Mediazona reported, the Moscow City Court website does in fact contain a hearing record on the choice of a pretrial measure for her under the article on large-scale fraud.
According to Philosophy Today, the case is connected to an
“error in reporting” under a state assignment to translate Aristotle’s texts.
The channel Zapiski Traditsionalista also claimed that searches were conducted at the home of the institute’s former director, 87-year-old academician Abdusalam Guseynov. In comments to Mediazona, he neither confirmed nor denied that information.
According to T-invariant, about 10 philosophers were taken in for questioning. Preliminary reports say most staff members were later released under travel restrictions.
Context. For several years, the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been at the center of a public conflict. In 2021, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education appointed philosopher Anatoly Chernyaev as acting director, but institute staff opposed the decision, and he lost the post two weeks later.
At the time, pro-government media linked to Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev accused the institute of taking a “liberal” position. The Russian service of the BBC wrote that Malofeyev himself stood behind the attempt to change the institute’s leadership.