In parallel with the passage of a bill in the State Duma on FSB control over international cooperation of scientists, universities have begun to tighten the rules for examining any materials and presentations to confirm the absence of state secrets, writes T-invariant*.
The recommendations of the Interdepartmental Commission for the Protection of State Secrets were sent to universities more than 10 years ago, but the era of total control is just beginning. MSU employees sent the publication's editorial office a new order on this topic and reported that the management threatens to withhold bonuses and incentives if the procedure is ignored. Similar orders have appeared in other universities. For example, the UrFU website has published recommendations, regulatory documents, and examination forms similar to MSU's documentation.
Now employees are required to undergo an internal examination for the absence of state secrets before any publication or presentation.
At the same time, "open publication," which must be approved by the commission, also includes oral presentations at dissertation defenses, seminars, conferences, exhibitions, publications in the media, any submission of any materials (including reviews) to scientific journals, collections, even if the text was not accepted or published.
According to the order, the MSU Expert Commission included 37 people. In addition to the person responsible for the entire document, Vice-Rector Andrey Fedyanin (head of the scientific policy department) and Vice-Rector Stanislav Bushev (academic policy department) are on the list, along with a variety of people. Some faculties and institutes delegated deans or their deputies, others—associate professors and research staff. The logic is hard to understand: some faculties delegated 2-3 people, while some natural science departments presented one ordinary employee.
T-invariant received confirmations of the tightening of material examination requirements from faculty members of political science, philology, and biology.
Ignoring the procedure may result in the withholding of bonuses and incentives. "The reception and issuance of materials submitted for examination by the MSU Expert Commission is carried out in room 663 of the MSU Fundamental Library," the order states. It is not entirely clear how all MSU departments—thousands of people—are supposed to physically bring papers there.
"The order we are discussing at the university, in my opinion, is more of a bureaucratic absurdity than systematic pressure from law enforcement. The university, either out of fear, misunderstanding, or a desire to curry favor, has outdone the most formal recommendations of the Interdepartmental Commission for the Protection of State Secrets," one of the publication's interlocutors believes.
As T-invariant writes, the MSU order makes scientists inherently guilty: now guilt is checked by comprehensive examination, and for this, it is necessary to obtain a certificate that absolutely any written or oral presentation contains no state secrets, ideological subversion, or conditional "discreditation."
* Recognized in Russia as a "foreign agent."