Professor returning to Russia from EU-funded program gets arrested and deported

Professor Yulbars Mansurov, a faculty member at Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, was arrested at a Moscow airport and will be deported to his home country of Uzbekistan. Mansurov was returning to Russia from Berlin, after participating in Tempus, an EU-funded program supporting the modernization of higher education in the EU’s partner countries.

Mansurov holds a doctorate in the technical sciences, is the author of three books and more than 130 articles, and holds patents for 12 inventions. He is the head of BA and MA programs in the field of “innovations,” teaches materials-science and engineering, and is the project manager for the Far Eastern Federal University’s development program.

Mansurov wrote in a Facebook post that border authorities at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport claimed he had violated Russia’s migration law by spending over 90 days in Russia. Mansurov claims this rule does not apply to him under his university contract.

Earlier, Mansurov’s son, Saidnumon Mansurov, was also denied entry into Russia. He is a postgraduate student at the Far Eastern Federal University.

The Far Eastern Federal University has asked the Federal Migration Service to explain the circumstances of Mansurov’s arrest.

Who can explain this? I was coming back from a round of Tempus project training sessions in Berlin. I think someone from the university is behind this.

Ulbars Mansurov

• Mansurov has worked at the Far Eastern Federal University since 2012. Earlier, he headed Uzbekistan’s Agency for the Transfer of Technologies, a department of the Ministry of Economics of Uzbekistan. He also worked as a researcher at several research institutions and universities in Uzbekistan.
• Tempus is a program implemented by the European Commission. The program aims to support the modernization of higher education in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Western Balkans, and the Mediterranean region.