Law and order at RSSU

Law and order at RSSU

How the university security service monitors political activity: stories of protest participants about pressure from the administration and students collaborating with it

In October, a student at the Faculty of International Relations of the Russian State University of Social Sciences was called to the security service for participating in one of the summer rallies. Throughout October 2019, several dozen more students went through preventive conversations with the security service. DOXA is looking into how and why the university finds out about the opposition views of students and who is behind it.

The article is published jointly with Novaya Gazeta.

RGSU student Vladimir Medvedev ( the hero's name has been changed at his request ) has always been interested in politics: he studies at the Faculty of International Relations and is a member of the Yabloko party. All summer, Vladimir, like many students, worked in the election headquarters of one of the candidates for the Moscow City Duma: he collected signatures, was responsible for election campaigning, and coordinated volunteers. The candidate for whom the student campaigned was registered and, moreover, he was elected to the Duma as a deputy from the Yabloko party. But when independent candidates were not registered, Vladimir went to an unsanctioned rally for fair elections in the center of Moscow - and there he was detained. Like many students detained that day, he rode in a paddy wagon and sat in the police station, and then at the trial he received an administrative punishment: a fine for “violating the procedure for holding mass events” (Part 5 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code).

“If you weren’t called before, it doesn’t mean you weren’t being watched.”

In September, Vladimir returned to the university, and on October 2, the RSSU security service called him for a conversation: they received information about an administrative offense and they wanted to conduct a “preventative conversation” with the student (an audio recording of the conversation is available to DOXA). During this “conversation”, security officers threatened the student with expulsion and tried to find out how much he was paid for participating in rallies and pickets, and also accused him of working for the European Union and “recruiting” other students.

At the same time, the RGSU security service forced Vladimir Medvedev to write an explanatory note and indicate the names of those students who also attended unauthorized rallies - together with him or separately. The security service was especially interested in students living in the RSSU dormitory. Under pressure, Medvedev indicated their names, and then the employee, under dictation, forced him to write on his own behalf in the explanatory note: “ I will no longer go to uncoordinated rallies and attract RGSU students. I undertake to abide by the code of honor of RGSU students .”

“I’m not angry with the employees, but I’m angry with those who gave the order to conduct these conversations.”

After student Vladimir Medvedev was called to the security service for an “educational conversation,” a whole wave of persecution of students who participated in uncoordinated actions or were suspected of doing so swept across the RSSU. In order to become the object of attention from employees, it was not necessary to receive a fine or other administrative punishment. The security service called “on the carpet” even those who were not detained at the protests and threatened these students.

For example, a 2nd year student at the Faculty of Psychology was called for a conversation, according to the girl, because of a message in the general chat of the RSSU dormitory on VK and “stories” on her personal Instagram account. Most likely, another student told the security service about these publications. All students who were called in for a conversation were forced to write an explanatory note and indicate in it that they would no longer attend unapproved protests.

RGSU student Vladimir Savin was also invited to the Security Service for a “conversation”, and then his roommate in the dormitory was also called, although he did not attend the uncoordinated protests - and Vladimir told the employees about this.

“ In general, I don’t hold any grudges against the security service: they didn’t impose their views, they accepted my views. They told me directly that their goal was to have an educational conversation .” - says the student. — “ From the educational conversation, I learned several rules: do not campaign on the territory of the university, do not attend unauthorized events, pay off debts. The thing that confused me the most was my roommate calling me in for a conversation, even though I said he had absolutely nothing to do with it. In general, I’m not angry with the employees, but I am angry with those who gave the order to conduct these conversations. Not because they called me, but because they called a person who has nothing to do with this case .”

According to students, in October the Security Service summoned approximately 20-30 students. Many of them refused to talk to DOXA for fear of pressure from the university administration. RSSU representatives did not respond to DOXA's request for comment.

“I contributed to the capture of real terrorists”

The RSSU security service does not always have to independently identify active students - some students volunteer to help university staff look for “oppositionists” and report them to law enforcement agencies. The editors of DOXA magazine contacted 4th year student of the Russian State University Daniil Mikheev, who not only considers student participation in protests unacceptable, but is also confident that students should inform the university administration about the political activity of their classmates. In his opinion, “ anyone who uses a university as a political platform for his proclamations has no place in a university: he has devalued the importance of higher education for himself .”

Students participate in rallies because they are paid for it, Daniil believes. Attending unauthorized rallies is an offense, and the student must be punished, even if he was not detained at the rally itself. The state and the university should do this, and the students themselves should help them. “ Having discovered some information, what is the problem in sending it to the competent authorities, competent persons ,” Daniil is perplexed.

Daniil said that he himself helped the university management identify opposition-minded students. He believes that ultimately this benefits the activists: “ I contributed to the capture of real terrorists, extremists and those who have not yet matured into their category. This is in many ways a help for them, no matter how they feel about it. We need to pull the person out on time .” Any student can offer such “help” to a university; a similar “notification system” works properly at RGSU: “ He [the student] must contact the right people. For example, come to the security department of your university and say that he is a person with an active civic position and wants to help .” Although in general Daniil characterizes RGSU as a university with many “caring students,” he notes with regret that this year the university “for the first time encountered such an increase in crime among students.”

3rd year student Vladimir Utenkov told DOXA that it was based on Mikheev’s complaint that in October 2019 an administrative case was opened against him for “propaganda or public display of Nazi paraphernalia or symbols” (Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code) because of a five-minute video on VKontakte entitled “The Last Days of the Third Reich, the Defense of Berlin (German Documentary 1945).” According to Utenkov, Mikheev threatened him and his friend Vladimir Medvedev that he would “definitely put them both in prison.” In addition, Daniil suggested that Utenkov cooperate with the Center for Countering Extremism and write denunciations against other RGSU students himself, but he refused. As a result, the administrative case against Vladimir Utenkov was closed, since the court recognized that there was no propaganda of Nazi symbols in the video.

"The FSB is blowing up Russia"

The security service, together with students loyal to it, constantly monitors the pages of particularly politicized students on social networks and reports everything that arouses their suspicion: from participation in rallies to the publication of some materials. Moreover, both the university administration and the students themselves cooperate with law enforcement agencies, for example, with the Center for Countering Extremism and the FSB.

One day, after RGSU student Andrei Ivanov ( name changed at the student’s request ) reposted the film “The FSB Explodes Russia” on VKontakte, two FSB officers came to his dormitory. The employees had screenshots of the student’s personal correspondence and publications in their hands. The student was urgently asked to remove from the wall a recording containing, according to security forces, Nazi symbols. The student was threatened with problems with his studies and expulsion from RGSU, and in the protocol drawn up based on the results of the interrogation, many of the student’s phrases were changed by FSB officers. The young man insisted that his actual remarks be included in the protocol. That was where it all ended: neither an administrative nor a criminal case was initiated. According to the student, no one else bothered him.