Universities and the system: «Groza» presents a study on Russian authorities' pressure on students and academia. Specially for OVD-Info.

Ekaterina Mizulina’s tours of universities

Among other notable events at universities that took place in 2023-2025 is the tour of Russian universities made by the head of the Safe Internet League, Ekaterina Mizulina. Despite Mizulina’s popularity and huge lines to meet her, universities still round up students to her speeches.

In February 2024, Mizulina visited Yekaterinburg, a major city in the Ural Mountains, to give a talk at Ural Federal University. According to the local Telegram channel «Svet. Yekaterinburg» (meaning «Light. Yekaterinburg») , the event needed to meet a student attendance «quota». However, the university administration asked to invite only loyal students and preferably not from the journalism faculty. Next, Mizulina traveled to Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. There, the administration of the Institute of International Relations at Kazan Federal University instructed students to attend the event by order of the director.

In May 2024, she arrived in Voronezh, a large city in southwestern Russia, where students were forced to attend the meeting under threat of expulsion. Just fifteen minutes into her speech, many in the audience began leaving the hall.

Mizulina reached Irkutsk, a major city in Siberia, where she spoke at IrNITU. Students were required to attend and even made to sing Shaman’s song «Ya russkiy» («I’m Russian») — all for the sake of «polished video footage».

Participation in Elections

In 2023, in addition to rallies, concerts, and lectures, students were coerced and pressured to take part in elections. According to the Federal Law «On Education,» institutions of higher and secondary education are required to maintain political neutrality, while the Federal Law «On Elections» prohibits any form of political campaigning within these institutions. Forcing students to participate in elections or imposing political views on them violates the law and may result in disciplinary, administrative, or criminal liability.

Despite the official ban, in March 2023, the rector of Mordovia State University compelled students to vote for him in the United Russia (Edinaya Rossiya, President Vladimir Putin’s ruling political party) primaries while he was running for a seat in the regional parliament. In Krasnoyarsk Krai, employees of the Krasnoyarsk Construction College and the Siberian Federal University were similarly pressured to engage in the United Russia primaries.

In September, during regional elections, a group advisor at the Novosibirsk College of Food Industry and Processing encouraged students to vote for Governor Andrey Travnikov and asked them to report back on whether they had cast their ballots. At Novosibirsk State University, the administration sent emails to students and staff members urging them to take part in the elections, while in Voronezh, students were transported to polling stations by bus. In November 2023, students at the Crimean Federal University were made to register in the electronic voting system as part of a regional training exercise for the «Vybory» («Elections») e-voting system and the «Vybory 2.0» digital platform.

Overall, in 2023 the student human rights project «Molnia» recorded 13 violations in universities and colleges in connection with elections and pre-election campaigning.

In 2024 students and staff of institutions of higher and secondary education were more frequently exploited in the context of voting. Over the course of the year, «Molnia» recorded 147 violations related to elections in universities and colleges. That year, Russia held presidential elections, additional State Duma by-elections, gubernatorial elections in 25 regions, legislative elections in 13 regions, and municipal elections.

Students and faculty members at at least 27 educational institutions were forced to vote.

In 2024, against the backdrop of the presidential and Moscow City Duma elections, students and faculty at at least seven universities and colleges were asked to register for electronic voting, or their registration was being monitored. This occurred at Voronezh State University, Tomsk College of Culture and Arts, Nizhny Novgorod State University, and the Russian State University for the Humanities

At universities and colleges, students and faculty were asked to vote either on a specific day or at a designated polling station. For example, at the Siberian State University of Geosystems and Technologies, students were encouraged to vote on March 15 directly at the university. In exchange, they were promised a voucher for a free meal in the cafeteria. Non-local students were asked to unregister from their home polling stations and register at the one located on the university’s premises.

In September 2024, student voters at the Russian University of Cooperation in Kazan (KKI RUK) were also offered bribes. Student representatives from one of the faculties were asked to report the number of students who had voted, and the group with the highest turnout was promised a «sweet prize». According to Groza’s readers, students at the university are frequently compelled to attend «patriotic» lectures in exchange for extra credit and exemptions from classes.

At Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, students were forced to register for a quiz dedicated to the presidential election. Teachers were threatened with fines if the number of compelled registrations did not increase. Students were told that those who hadn’t registered would be identified by their questionnaire numbers and contacted to explain why they hadn’t signed up.

Youth Policy until 2030: The Role of Universities, Colleges, and Ideological Education

Universities and colleges are increasingly functioning not as autonomous educational institutions, but as controlled structures tasked with carrying out ideological objectives. This is explicitly stated in the Strategy for the Implementation of Youth Policy until 2030. Among the stated goals are the development of «skills for socially useful work through service», the involvement of participants in the war against Ukraine in educational activities, including within universities and colleges, and «the development of forms of cooperation in the sphere of student upbringing between institutions of higher education and socially oriented non-profit organisationsengaged in the patriotic education of youth».

Through updated codes of ethics, reorganisation of student councils, criminal and administrative cases, ethics commissions and public encouragement of whistleblowing, the authorities build loyalty in universities and deprive students and professors of authority.

These developments are unfolding against the backdrop of increased spending on state youth policy, the launch of propaganda courses, and the creation of Kremlin-controlled youth organizations such as the Movement of First. Compared to 2022, spending on youth policy rose by 40% in 2023, reaching 69 billion rubles. In 2025, the government plans to allocate 66 billion rubles for youth policy. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, authorities have spent over 91 billion rubles on so-called «patriotic» education. In 2023 and 2024 alone, more than 85 billion rubles were allocated to the corresponding federal programme. Most of the funds are funneled through the Rospatriotcenter and go toward forums, souvenirs, security, and facility repairs.

The academic environment has become a particular focus of state attention, viewed as a space not only for teaching, but also for shaping «correct» attitudes, loyalty, and political passivity. As a result, universities are increasingly being transformed into instruments of ideological control.