Address of the Russian Union of Rectors

Typically in Russia it was possible not to support actions of the government even when working for the government directly or indirectly. The threat of being fired was empty as bosses did not want to report to superiors that some people did not participate in official campaigns. But this time the threats became real and an option to keep the mouth shut no longer exists.

Just keep in mind that in the old Soviet Union if you had a public position or a position with public influence(like a rector) you were always expected to agree with the government, or (in the best case) you'd lose your job. So it could be very much a case of "sign this or you'll regret it".

Yesterday there was a story about a rector who was arrested for preaching against the war during a sermon - pretty courageous but that kind of courage is apparently not too common.

Spineless. They will be remembered for this.

There are no ppl left in these positions who had not proved their loyalty to Kremlin in the past. Students tend to speak their mind (Doxa[1] is a good example) and they can organize themselves, so they need shepherds.

For example, Zuev was imprisoned, because Kremlin didn't found another way to deal with him.[2]

[1] https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2021/07/07/5-prichin-pochem... [2] https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2022/03/04/sud-prodlil-ares...

Sorry, links in Russian, but as a tl;dr:

Doxa[3] is a students led media, and they were crushed after they showed their support to Navalny. They had troubles before, but this was the last straw. Zuev was a rector of Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences[3], which was itself under the attack for years, and it ended with charges to Zuev alleging that he misused money from government.

[3] https://doxajournal.ru/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_School_for_the_Social_a...

War is always a good pretext for crushing internal dissent, since critics can easily be branded as traitors. Some Russian observers believe the only reason Putin is invading Ukraine right now is because his position has weakened to the point that he needed a war to shore up support and get rid of opposition. So now is probably not a great time to accurately gauge how much real support and loyalty he commands.

It would be easy and prudent to personally sanction anyone putting their name on lists like this, no?

These are 700 people who should be permanently cut off from the west.