“In the second year of SVO, a terrible abscess opened”

Director of the Biographical Institute of the writer and philosopher Alexander Zinovyeva, public figure Olga Zinovyeva offered to test the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences for patriotism. The Telegram channel “Podyom” that reported on this quotes her words:

“During the second year of the special military operation, a terrible abscess opened up – the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The last refuge of scoundrels, traitors, foreign agents, defectors, Russophobes and extremists,” Zinovyeva said at a press conference held at the Russian state federal news agency TASS.

She suggested creating an “attestation committee for patriotic and civil certification of the institute’s leadership and every employee”, which should include members of the State Duma, the head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin and the Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov.

Zinovyeva is sure that the loyalty check should be carried out using a lie detector.

Abdusalam Huseynov, acting director of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, did not leave such a sentence without a reply:

“This is a very good proposal. We should really create such a detector and let the entire population pass. Well, or, in any case, all philosophers.”

He added that the institute is directly subordinated to the Ministry of Science and works within the framework of its plan, there were no instructions from the department about the need to assess the loyalty of employees, and no checks were carried out.

According to the official data of Roskomnadzor, only in the first six months of last year, citizens of the Russian Federation wrote more than 145 thousand denunciations – most of them concern “fakes” and “discrediting” of the army.

Sociologists note the growth of conflicting assessments between people who openly express their opinions about those whose opinions they do not agree with. In the Russian language of the period of Stalinist terror, insulting statements and politically colored characteristics were used widely and unhindered in the public and media language.

There are no accurate, reliable official statistics on changes in public sentiment in Russia at the present time.