Ten students of St. Petersburg State University may be expelled because of their anti-war comments

The Ethics Commission of St. Petersburg University stated that the statements of students of the history faculty against the war in Ukraine violate the university’s code and are “incompatible with the status of students of St. Petersburg State University.” 10 students in respect of whom such a decision was made by the commission may be expelled. This follows from the decisions published on the commission’s website.

From June 3 to June 5, the commission made 11 decisions regarding students from the first to the fourth year. In 10 cases, she decided that the students violated the code of ethics of the university, in one more case – that there was no violation. The same text was given in each of the decisions, only the name of the student changed.

The complaint was submitted to the commission by the first vice-rector for youth policy and reception organization, Aleksandr Babich. In it, he said that the student discussed in a negative way on social networks the news about the death of Fedor Solomonov, a student of St. Petersburg State University, during the war in Ukraine.

“Instead of honoring the memory of our university student, his peer, showing normal human feelings, he considered it appropriate to ironize what happened, defaming the memory of the student. He also committed other actions aimed at discrediting the special military operation carried out by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” it was said in every solution

In all ten cases, in response to the complaint, the commission reported that “convincing objections” were not submitted by the students, and “the ethics commission did not have confidence in the position expressed by the students.” After that, the commission ruled that the students’ actions were “incompatible with the status of a student of the St. Petersburg State University.” As noted by the student publication “Lupa and Pupa”, this may be grounds for dismissal.

• On June 2, professor Mikhail Belousov was dismissed from St. Petersburg University because of his anti-war remarks. When discussing the death of student Fyodor Solomonov in the war, he wrote in a chat that “direct and open approval of racism is disgusting.” The correspondence was published in pro-government telegram channels. The management of the university considered the teacher’s actions “immoral” and removed him from his post.
• A report on the “discrediting” of the army was drawn up against Belousov, which stated that Belousov “expressed his opinion to the students about the participation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the war, and not in a special military operation.” After the dismissal, the “discrediting” case against Belousov was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
• After the scandal with the dismissal of Belousov, students of the history faculty of St. Petersburg State University reported that they received threats because of their anti-war statements. In VKontakte, students receive messages from unknown people who threaten beatings and call students “Ukronazis”.