Moscow goes to war against US universities as Russian students face prison for studying abroad

Moscow is criminalizing the American dream — blacklisting more than a dozen elite US universities and making it illegal for Russians to so much as contact them.In a sweeping crackdown, Russia’s General Prosecutor’s office has branded 19 top American schools as “undesirable” and turned what used to be a dream — studying abroad — into a legal nightmare, according to the Moscow Times.The latest target of the Russian Undesirable Organizations law, which was signed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in May 2015, is Stanford University, which was added to the Kremlin hate list on April 7.The school joins Tufts University and earlier additions like UC Berkeley, George Washington University, and Yale University.The hostility stems from Russian officials who claim the universities — once symbols of prestige where Russian students routinely came and went on exchange programs — are part of a broader campaign to limit foreign influence in its academic and civic space.Critics argue this legal framework is being used to deter engagement with global academia and isolate Russian scholars from international networks, according to MSN.“Yale University was recognized as an undesirable organization at my request,” lawmaker Andrei Lugovoy said on the Russian state television show Evening With Vladimir Solovyov.

“Nothing like this has happened before.And we believe it is the right thing to do.”The prosecutor’s office paid special attention to Yale’s School of Global Affairs, which the Russians claim conducts “training opposition leaders of foreign countries.”Tufts University and its prestigious Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy have also been blasted by Russian prosecutors as “anti-Russian propaganda tools” that “radicalize” the country’s citizens, according to the Moscow Times.The crackdown has taken on a sharper edge since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.“By openly expressing solidarity with the Kyiv regime, these institu...