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Report from the court session against the European University in St. Petersburg

The European University in St. Petersburg was again punished. This time, a fine of a quarter of a million rubles - the court appointed the softest punishment for the violation that the prosecutor's office charged to the university. It has not yet been decided whether the university will appeal the court decision, but he did not admit guilt.

The new cloud hung over the European University in St. Petersburg (EUSPB) in the spring. On April 21, the prosecutor's office of the Central District of the city drew attention to the analytical report published on the university’s website “How and by whom the forensic examination is going on: experts in the context of interagency interactions”. In this study, signs were suddenly found aimed at humiliating the dignity of Russian forensic experts. According to the supervisory authorities, they are expressed in "harm to the professional (business) reputation to representatives of this social group."

At the end of June, the university was held accountable under an administrative article on "arousing hatred and enmity in relation to a separate social group." On Thursday, July 17, the Smolninsky District Court considered the case of an administrative offense against an autonomous non -profit organization of higher education.

As it turned out during the trial, becoming interested in the work of specialists of the European University, the prosecutor's office sent an analytical report to the Center for Expertise of St. Petersburg State University and requested a judgment. It was the specialists of the scandalously known center, in particular - the candidate of philological sciences of St. Petersburg State University Anastasia Grishanina, who summed up that the EUSPB report contains signs of humiliation of the dignity of forensic experts.

It should be noted that since 2022, employees of the Center for Expertise of St. Petersburg State University have been regularly involved in investigative bodies for conducting examinations in criminal cases of "fakes" in relation to the Russian army. The results of their work, as a rule, satisfy the investigation. At the conclusions of employees of St. Petersburg State University, including Anastasia Grishanina, accusations were built by such political prisoners as Sasha Skochilenko, Vsevolod Korolev, Oleg Belousov, Evgeny Bestuzhev, Victoria Petrov and others. At the same time, independent experts involved in the above trials, to the fluff, carried the arguments of colleagues cooperating with the investigation.

The court hearing on July 17 began with the request of a representative of the university on an independent examination of the report, since there is nothing in the case except the judgment of employees of St. Petersburg State University. The prosecutor's office did not mind. However, the judge refused the university in this petition.

Then the lawyer of the European University stated that the case should be terminated in general. A study on forensic examination was carried out back in 2019–2021. Then, in 2021, the authors of the report publicly performed with him at the All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference “Milestones of the History of the Russian Center of Forensic Medical Expertise. To the 90th anniversary of education. " Then the results of the study were published in the collection following the results of the event.

From the point of view of the defender of the university, if the European University has committed an offense, then a few years ago, and its duration has already expired. The prosecutor objected:

“No, this is a lasting offense. Maybe the university committed it in 2019–2021, but did not eliminate at the time when the violation was revealed by the prosecutor’s office. ”

After two unsuccessful attempts to stop the trial at the start of the European University, began to talk about the subject of attacks, trying to defend him:

-The analytical report in which the prosecutor's office saw the signs of humiliation of the dignity of a group of persons on the grounds of belonging to the social group “Russian judicial experts” is the result of an empirical and sociological research of legal professions. Within its framework, 24 expert interviews were held, of which 14 informants are experts (6 forensic experts and 8 forensic experts) and 10 are representatives of legal professions (investigators, lawyers, judges). That is, the experts themselves spoke about their own work. In addition, five field observations of a full working day were held in the branches of the forensic bureau and in the department of complex examinations. The study is carried out in strict accordance with the principles of scientific ethics and respect for the individual.

According to the lawyer of the European University, this is also confirmed by the linguistic conclusion of the specialist of the Institute of the Russian Language named after V.V. Vinogradova RAS.

- The statements that the expert of St. Petersburg State University refers are a direct speech of informants (forensic experts), therefore, there can be no talk of any intent or motivation of the university to humiliate the dignity of a group of people. In the case, there is no composition of the offense under Article 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. Moreover, this article in principle cannot be applied to scientific materials in accordance with the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, ”the defender of the university emphasized.

The judge missed the last argument and gave the floor to the prosecution. The prosecutor did not differ in eloquence: "The violation was revealed, the expert’s judgment from St. Petersburg State University received, this is enough, the wine has been proven."

The judge retired for five minutes in an advisory room to make a decision. The court session as a whole took 30 minutes. And the feeling of predetermination did not leave for any. Students of the European University, who came to support the educational institution, were ultimately on this subject: "The judge does not even adjust the facts to conclusions, does not steam, the decision was made back in April."

As a result, the EUSPB received the minimum possible punishment for legal entities for this violation - a fine of 250 thousand rubles. The maximum sanction of Article 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation is half a million rubles. However, some indulgence is explained:

Even before the trial, the European University in St. Petersburg deleted an analytical report from his site, third -party resources and from publications in the media. And this is not the first case in recent years, when the university has to sacrifice something to continue work.

The European University in St. Petersburg was opened in 1994 with the support of the mayor Anatoly Sobchak. Among the founders of the university are also called Alexei Kudrin and Mikhail Piotrovsky. Due to high professionalism and unique scientific potential, the university acquired a reputation as one of the most dynamic and modern educational institutions in Russia.

The first problems of the European University began in 2016. Then the deputy of the city legislative assembly Vitaly Milonov said that students are supposedly forced to write work about sexual minorities, after which the prosecutor's office came to the university. The university was deprived of a license, and only in 2018 did Rosobrnadzor return it to the EUSPB.

In the fall of 2023, the European University in St. Petersburg was held accountable for participating in the activities of "undesirable" organizations. Two protocols under Article 20.33 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation drew up to the university for storage in the library of books of unwanted organizations.

As explained then at the European University, eight scientific books published with the support of the Open Society Institute (recognized as undesirable in 2015) and the Kennan Institute-units of the International Center for Woodlon Wilson (recognized as undesirable in 2022), ended up in the university library long before the adoption of the relevant law-in the period from 2000 to 2009. Nevertheless, books from the library were seized, and the university itself was fined 70 thousand rubles.

In early June 2024, Rosobrnadzor announced the results of the audit at the European University, which was initiated by an anonymous complaint in May 2023 and lasted more than a year. As a result, Rosobrnadzor made comments regarding 98 university programs and 12 master's thesis.

“Most of the comments are an underestimation of the contribution of Russian thinkers, pro -Western orientation, a manifestation of bourgeois mentality and similar shortcomings. And in several graduation work - signs of negative educational impact or a critical attitude to modern Russian politics, ” said Vadim Volkov, rector of the European University in St. Petersburg, about the claims of the department.

And at the end of June 2024, university employees announced the closure of the Center for Studies of modernization, which conducted political and social studies. At the university, this decision was explained by the need to "strengthen the work of the Eurasia Research Center and cooperation with Chinese partners."

A month before the meeting in the Smolninsky court, in June 2025, EUSPB bought a car to Russian military doctors to transport the wounded in the war zone. It did not help.