BASEES Condemns Russia’s Classification of Bremen’s Centre for Eastern European Studies as “Undesirable”

The British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) strongly condemns the Russian judiciary's classification of the Centre for Eastern European Studies (Forschungsstelle Osteuropa) at the University of Bremen as 'undesirable'. There is absolutely no basis for penalizing and discrediting a renowned research institution that operates in accordance with international standards. The Centre for Eastern European Studies was founded in 1982, during the Cold War, to analyse independent literature and independent social and cultural movements. To this end, it has built up a globally unique archive of documents on dissent and samizdat in Eastern and Central Eastern Europe, which is used by researchers from all over the world. The Centre for Eastern European Studies itself conducts research into the history and present-day situation of the post-Soviet space. The focus is on authoritarian, repressive regimes and their methods of persecution, as well as the various ways in which the population resists them. The classification as 'undesirable' is an attack on academic freedom and an attempt to muzzle an institute that, on an objective basis, voices criticism of Putin's regime and the Russian war against Ukraine. It poses a threat to the Russian staff, who are apparently being forced to choose between their employer and their former homeland, Russia. It marks the beginning of a return to dividing the international academic community into two hemispheres, in which the Russian community will no longer be able to access knowledge generated in the West. Works by 'undesirable' institutions and individuals will presumably no longer be permitted to be cited; their works will once again disappear into 'special repositories' to which only privileged, hyper-loyal academics will have access. We firmly oppose this attack on the international scientific community and its standards. Science must be possible freely and without fear.

Committee, British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES)