Andrey Zubov is an expert in the history of European philosophy, religion and Russia. (From left: Minister for European Affairs Mikuláš Bek, Rector of Masaryk University Martin Bareš and Russian historian Professor Andrej Zubov. Photo credit: MUNI.)
Moscow/Brno, Feb 18 (CTK) – The Russian Justice Ministry has listed Russian historian Andrey Zubov, who took up the post of guest lecturer at Masaryk University in Brno, as a foreign agent, Radio Free Europe (RFE) said today.
Thus listed persons are subjected to a strict control by Russian authorities.
The Russian Justice Ministry argued that Zubov was spreading false information about authorities and materials of other foreign agents.
Since early December, a new law has been valid in Russia that can label as a foreign agent anyone who has got under a “foreign influence.”
Now the authorities do not even prove that the person in question gets any financial support from abroad.
Zubov is an expert in the history of European philosophy, religion and Russia. He helped write The History of Russia of the 20th Century, a book with a large resonance and debates.
In 2014, he was forced to leave the State Institute of International Relations in Moscow due to his criticism of the Russian policy towards Ukraine, which led to the annexation of Crimea.
In 2019, Masaryk University granted honorary doctorate to Zubov and offered him to lecture in Brno, but he refused the offer, arguing that he still wanted to work in Russia.
He only came here last year as he did not feel safe at home. The last straw was the mobilisation in Russia, coupled with a major change in the official rhetoric and toughening propaganda.
Zubov said on his Facebook profile that the step was an “absurd decision of criminal gangs.”
“As a Russian citizen and politician I have a full right and even duty to criticise and condemn the people who have usurped power in my country, pushing it on the road of national disaster when triggering a war against a neighbouring sovereign state, Ukraine,” Zubov said.
“As an academic, I have a full right to work at any university in the world, to which I was invited and that is ready to listen to my lectures especially after the authorities in my homeland stripped me of this opportunity in 2014,” he added.
Zubov said in response to his being listed as an agent in Russia that he wanted to file a criminal complaint about the Russian Justice Ministry through his trustworthy lawyer Mikhail Biryukov.
pvr/dr
