(en) Russia, avtonom.org, Sign the petition with the demand to reinstate Andrey Kutuzov in his teaching position

Sign the petition with the demand to reinstate Andrey Kutuzov in his teaching position. We call on concerned academics around the world to sign the petition to Administration of Tyumen State University and Russian higher education authorities. ---- Andrey Kutuzov is a Russian anarchist academic who has been teaching linguistics at Tyumen State University (Western Siberia). He is also an activist and participant in grassroots movements. 7 September 2011 Andrey was dismissed by Gennady Chebotarev, the rector of the University. - We believe that Andrey was dismissed because of pressure from the local authorities on the university administration. The official reason for the dismissal was declared “committing an immoral deed” referring to the recent case of repression for his political
activities.

In the last few years the local Centre of counteraction to extremism (in
fact political police) was paying close attention to the activities of
local social movements. The first attempt to frame Andrey and his
comrades with “extremism” in 2009 failed. But several months ago Andrey
Kutuzov was found guilty in “spreading extremist leaflets” and convicted
to 2 years suspended, even though it was obvious that the case was
forged by Federal Security Service (ex-KGB). During the trial
substantial proof was provided that the leaflets were falsified. The
whole case abounds in terrible violations of law and logic. They are
reported in great detail in Russian here: http://golosa.info/kutuzov.

The case is also described in the book “The Thought Police: Authorities,
Experts and Anti-Extremism Campaign in Contemporary Russia”, as an
another example of political repression (co-authored by Alek D. Epstein
and Oleg Vasiliev (Moscow, 2011), pp. 87-104).

But even under the pressure of state agencies the court did not prohibit
Andrey to teach as was demanded by the prosecutor. Perhaps, it was
because of strong support from his colleagues and academic community in
general. In March 2011, scholars and students from the Department of
translation studies (where Andrey worked) signed a public letter (in
Russian: http://golosa.info/node/4887), in which they questioned the
impartiality and independence of the court. They described Andrey as a
prominent scholar and a talented lecturer. According to them, Andrey
never imposed his views on anybody or used his academic status for
non-professional purposes. The local academic community does not think
Andrey is guilty and believes that the case has been forged because of
his political activities.

We demand to reinstate Andrey because we believe this dismissal to be
illegal and to severely violate principles of academic freedom.

Sign the petition at
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/sign-the-petition-with-the-demand-to-reinstate-andrey-k.html

Curriculum Vitae of Andrey Kutuzov: http://tc.utmn.ru/en/node/191
Tyumen State University web site: http://www.utmn.ru

http://avtonom.org/en/news/sign-petition-demand-reinstate-andrey-kutuzov-his-teaching-position