University Denies ‘Political’ Closure

By Irina Titova

Staff Writer

Published: February 12, 2008 (Issue # 1347)

St. Petersburg’s European University has dismissed claims that it has been closed down for political reasons, saying that a court ordered it to halt its operations because of fire code violations at the institution.

The University temporarily stopped its activities on fire safety grounds after the Dzerzhinsky Court handed down a decision on Thursday.

But media reports over the weekend speculated that the University was closed because it “trained election observers” with a 673,000 euro grant from the European Union.

President Vladimir Putin has warned of what he sees as foreign influence on the upcoming presidential election and has placed limitations on foreign election observers that led the OSCE to pull out of monitoring the March 2 vote last week.

The European University election observers project closed on Jan. 31 but Nikolai Vakhtin, head of the University, said it was wrong to connect the University’s subsequent temporary closure with it.

The political link was “the fantasy” of media sources, Vakhtin said, referring to Monday’s article in the Kommersant daily.

Vakhtin said the University’s activities were stopped for a week because of the fire safety code violations that a state fire inspection registered at the institution.

A Jan.18 inspection revealed the lack of an essential fire alarm system and instructions for emergency evacuations, Alla Samolyotova, a manager at the University, said.

After the Thursday court decision, the administration of the University acted to correct the violations and appealed to the court to order another inspection so that the University can resume operations.

“We would like to resume studies as soon as possible: this semester we are to teach 150 Russian and 20 foreign students,” Vakhtin said.

Meanwhile, Maxim Reznik, head of the St. Petersburg branch of the Yabloko party, said the court order was clearly political.

“No doubt, it’s about politics. Fire inspections are just an excuse,” he said, adding that the real reason was the project.

“The situation surrounding the European University is just another link in the chain. It’s another example of the authoritarian regime moving up a gear toward totalitarianism. Previously it allowed people not to like it, but now it doesn’t allow even that,” Reznik said.

Reznik said the project in question was not a threat to the authorities and was scientific. However, the fact that it was funded by the European Union could have raised suspicions in the eyes of the state, he said.

Grigory Golosov, head of the project, said that the project had caused resentment among some United Russia deputies in the State Duma. As a result, the Scientific Council of the University took the decision to close it, he said.

“However, I want to repeat that we were not training observers for the elections. It wasn’t an educational project, either. It was rather informative activities for all people wanting to know more about elections,” Golosov said.

Golosov said they invited different experts to talk about the topic at seminars that were open to people from various political parties. About 25 people usually attended, he said.

“Our idea was to provide people with more information about the electoral process. I can say that currently information about the issue in Russia is insufficient. However, we were not pursuing any political goals,” Golosov said.

Meanwhile, the project caught the attention of the city election committee, the Central Election Committee, and later the State Duma, Kommersant said. In June, Gadzhimet Safaraliyev, a United Russia deputy in the State Duma, called for an inquiry into the University.

The deputy was outraged that the grant was given “for organizing a network of election observers” instead of for scientific and educational purposes, Kommersant said.

“It should be considered as an attempt by the European Union to directly interfere in Russian election campaigns in 2007-2008,” the newspaper wrote.

Golosov said he was “sad” about the closure of the project. He said the European Commission also regretted the decision.

The European University, a non-state educational institution for post-graduate education, was opened in St. Petersburg in 1994 by a group of prominent Russian scientific and cultural figures and with the support of the city authorities. It focuses on social and humanitarian studies in Russia.