European University Reopened
By Galina Stolyarova
Staff Writer
The Dzerzhinsky federal court on Friday upheld an appeal by the European University that allows the school the right to resume its activities after it had been closed last month for fire code violations. Teaching at the university — an internationally recognized seat of learning and one of Russia’s best private universities — was suspended after the city fire inspectorate found 52 violations of fire safety rules during a routine annual check that was completed on January 18, prompting a rapid court ruling suspending the school’s activities. After correcting more than 20 of the violations, the university filed an appeal asking for permission to resume teaching while gradually correcting other violations, but the court ruled against the school. The Friday ruling was the third in the case. The university’s plight caused concern both in Russia and abroad due to what some observers said was a political motive behind the case. “What we felt was most alarming was the uniqueness of our situation,” said university rector Nikolai Vakhtin. “Fire safety standards in other universities are very similar to ours, but the European University was for some reason made a scapegoat and the only one to be closed down. “ Following the first court ruling, Alexander Viktorov, head of the City Hall’s Science and Higher Education Committee, promptly issued an order to revoke the school’s license. Governor Valentina Matviyenko last week gave her personal guarantee that the conflict between the university and the fire inspectorate would be resolved within days. Neither the governor nor the university offered any specific comments as to what Matviyenko’s intervention into the matter may have been but the verdict on Friday met the school’s expectations. “Had the conflict dragged on for half a year — as so often happens in the country’s courts — the university would have likely ceased to exist, at least in the form that it had operated before,” Vakhtin said. Speculation about an alleged political motive behind the shutdown has been rife. Human rights advocates were worried by the torrent of court rulings against the university and the way the drama escalated. A major concern was the fact that the university shut down an educational project that involved training election observers, carrying out independent monitoring of elections in Russia and informing the Russian people about the electoral process. Funded with a large grant from the European Union, it was closed unexpectedly in the wake of the row with the fire inspectors, without the university explaining the decision other than by saying that the project did not in some parts correspond with the school’s license. The project had drawn sharp criticism from some ruling United Russia parliamentarians in the State Duma who called for it to be closed and the university’s activities investigated. In line with those calls, the university found itself subject to three different inspections early this year. “The Russian authorities are going full steam ahead in imposing a strict system of control over people’s minds and suppressing independent thinking,” Yuly Rybakov, a veteran human rights advocate with Memorial human rights group, said. “The Kremlin is seeking to regain its grip and incorporate education into its ‘vertical of power.’ Back in the U.S.S.R. the state had a firm, unrelenting grip over all schools.” During the weeks when the university was officially suspended, many of the professors helped students to continue to work on dissertations on an unpaid basis, arranging to meet in their homes or in cafes. The students meanwhile campaigned against the closure by staging “flash-mobs” (theatrical protests) and street conferences. The first rector of the European University, Boris Firsov, who currently holds the post of its honorary vice-chancellor, has warned that private educational and cultural organizations can get buried in red tape and bureaucracy if they do not toe the political line of the state. “The Russian state has shown very well that it cares for fire safety but it has yet to demonstrate that it cares for academic talent,” Firsov added. March 27 sees the next seminar in the series Evenings in the European University, with Professor Vladimir Gelman delivering a lecture on the prospects of authoritarian modernization in Russia.
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