{"id":67716,"date":"2026-11-05T13:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T10:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/?post_type=news&p=67716"},"modified":"2026-11-05T13:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T10:01:13","slug":"russia-turns-on-its-scientists-donations-to-alexei-navalnys-foundation-are-landing-researchers-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/russia-turns-on-its-scientists-donations-to-alexei-navalnys-foundation-are-landing-researchers-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia turns on its scientists. Donations to Alexei Navalny\u2019s foundation are landing researchers in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Pictured: Andrei Dymov, Sofya Rosenfeld, Yevgeny Onishchenko. Art: Mediazona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Russian scientists and university lecturers are increasingly being prosecuted for \u201cfinancing extremism\u201d over small donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF, known also for its Russian abbreviation, FBK), the organisation founded by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The ACF was banned in Russia in 2021, when Navalny was still alive and imprisoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least two scientists have already been given prison sentences. One of them is Sofya Rosenfeld, a doctor of biological sciences and ornithologist whose trial Mediazona<\/em> followed closely; on October 7, she was sentenced to three and a half years in a penal colony. Yet hers is only the visible tip of the iceberg: we know of more than ten similar cases against researchers that have reached Moscow courts in the past six months. The defendants did not want publicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you understand the sentence?\u201d Judge Dzhemal Kurbanov asks Sofya Rosenfeld, a doctor of biological sciences and a specialist in Arctic birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d the scientist replies, bewildered, and asks him to repeat it. \u201cYou were speaking very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat exactly? You don\u2019t understand what the punishment is? Three years and six months\u2019 imprisonment in a general-regime penal colony! You may appeal within 15 days of the sentence being handed down. You may appeal within 15 days of receiving a copy of the verdict. Anything else?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 7, Rosenfeld, a researcher at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was taken into custody<\/a> in the courtroom. She is being sent to a penal colony for two transfers of 1,000 roubles, or about $12 at the current rate, each to FBK accounts. She is the third woman in Russia to receive a custodial sentence for donating to Alexei Navalny\u2019s organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy work is here, the birds are here, everything is here\u201d. Why Sofya Rosenfeld didn\u2019t leave Russia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Armed men burst into Rosenfeld\u2019s Moscow flat at half past four in the morning on December 5, 2025, according to her friend, biologist Arthur Ryabitsev. The two had returned late the previous evening from a trip to Israel, and he had stayed the night at her apartment. \u201cThey didn\u2019t force anyone onto the floor, but they terrified everyone: us, the neighbours,\u201d Ryabitsev recalls. \u201cThey carried out a search. They weren\u2019t really looking for anything in particular, but they asked Sofya to show them where her phone and laptops were, and took everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the search, both were driven to the Moscow headquarters of the Investigative Committee for questioning. Rosenfeld was given a state-appointed lawyer, whom she soon dismissed; Ryabintsev says she described him as \u201ccompletely off\u201d. \u201cWhenever the investigators asked her something, the lawyer would just say, \u2018Agree,\u2019 and nothing else. Well, Sonya is a clever person, and she quickly realised they were trying to talk her into admitting to everything they could.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryabitsev was questioned too. \u201cWhat my relationship with her is, what I do, how I\u2019d describe her, what I think about her transfers [to FBK],\u201d he lists, adding that investigators were also interested in the biologist\u2019s attitude to the war in Ukraine. \u201cI said that we support the state we live and work in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When discussing the charges against Rosenfeld, investigators stressed, according to Ryabitsev, that FBK had been designated an \u201cextremist organisation\u201d in June 2021 and that a notice to that effect \u201cwas in the newspaper\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI said I don\u2019t read newspapers, none of us read newspapers,\u201d the scientist explains. \u201cThe ruling came into force at the beginning of August, but at that time we were on a field trip in the Far North. [Rosenfeld] couldn\u2019t have cancelled those automatic payments while we were in the field anyway. We were busy with science and filming!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defence argued that Rosenfeld had not cancelled her recurring payments because she was on an expedition. However, even before the court designated FBK \u201cextremist\u201d, the foundation itself had stopped accepting donations, and in August 2021 it launched a new donation system via the payment service Stripe,<\/em> which was supposed to conceal who was receiving the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the very first day, a bug caused a fragment of the address WORLD.FBK.IN<\/em> to appear on users\u2019 bank statements. Navalny\u2019s team quickly fixed the flaw, but banks retained the internal transaction metadata. By studying the first exposed transfers, the security services identified FBK\u2019s merchant ID and began requesting bank records in bulk using that code to identify donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the day of the search and interrogation, December 5, Rosenfeld was released on a written travel restriction. A month later she was summoned to the Investigative Committee again, and on February 17, 2026, she was added to the list<\/a> of \u201cterrorists and extremists\u201d maintained by Rosfinmonitoring, Russia\u2019s financial intelligence agency, which froze her bank accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She continued to work at the institute: its management suggested she carry on \u201cas normal\u201d\u2014at least until the verdict. Some colleagues \u201ceven came round and offered advice\u201d, Ryabitsev says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first piece of advice was to leave Russia,\u201d he says. \u201cBut she was against it: \u2018No, I live here, I work here, everything I have is here. What would I do outside Russia?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosenfeld is one of Russia\u2019s leading ornithologists and a specialist in Arctic waterfowl. She holds dual Russian and Israeli citizenship, but she always wanted to work in Russia specifically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sofya Rosenfeld. Photo courtesy of her friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe used to say: \u2018My work is here, the birds are here, everything is here,\u2019 \u201d says another colleague, who asked not to be named. \u201cOf course, she had lots of international projects too: she did [bird] counts in Alaska, at wintering grounds in Greece, in Bulgaria, France, Kazakhstan, South-East Asia and China. But her main place of work is our Russian Arctic, and if she had left, that would have closed it off to her for ever. She wanted to do science in Russia, and she did a great deal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientist opposed<\/a> a bill that effectively legalised the shooting of animals listed in Russia\u2019s Red Book of endangered species, and for more than 15 years she campaigned<\/a> for a ban on spring hunting of waterfowl, publicly criticising the hunting lobby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe key problem is a group of people, mostly MPs and oligarchs, who want to make it possible to shoot animals anywhere, without legal restrictions,\u201d Rosenfeld told<\/a> the outlet Takie Dela<\/em> in 2024. \u201cThey push laws through the Ministry of Natural Resources, and many of them get passed, while scientists\u2019 conservation recommendations are ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe hunting lobby means big people, big bosses,\u201d says Ryabitsev. \u201cIncluding security officials who like shooting animals from helicopters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosenfeld had opponents not only among officials but also in academia\u2014some were irritated by her civic activism and her uncompromising views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course, she is incredibly determined, she would throw herself into a fight furiously and might say something sharp. Some people disliked her for going too far, for speaking out too harshly,\u201d says the other colleague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe thought: it should all go fine, then\u201d. Hopes for the trial<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rosenfeld\u2019s trial began at Moscow\u2019s Gagarinsky District Court in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friends and colleagues came to support her. In the court halls they discussed scientific papers and upcoming expeditions, but when the conversation turned to the case, they asked her lawyers rather naive questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In court, the biologist did not deny making the transfers, but she denied supporting extremism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI find it deeply\u2014how should I put it\u2014repugnant when people kill animals, even legally, simply as part of hunting, let alone people. So there can be no question whatsoever of my sharing extremist views, and accordingly I do not admit any criminal intent,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I decided to start supporting FBK, I was guided solely by the fight against corruption. Even in my own work\u2026\u201d Rosenfeld began, trying to explain her motives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat, don\u2019t we have law enforcement agencies for that?\u201d Judge Kurbanov interrupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe\u2026 I believed that any help from the public would be needed here. Because even in my own work, connected with scientific research and conservation, I saw what monstrous forms this evil can take. And at the time it seemed to me that any help in the fight against corruption would be a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, as the trial was drawing to a close, the court allowed Rosenfeld to travel to Yamal, the Arctic peninsula in North-Western Siberia where scientists have for several years been counting and tagging<\/a> musk oxen. This came as a surprise to her friends and to the scientist herself: because of her travel restriction, she had been unable to take part in expeditions since the previous December. According to Ryabitsev, this had made Rosenfeld irritable and she had been \u201cgrieving terribly\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey let her go without any problems at all. We thought at the time: it should all go fine in court, then,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the prosecutor had asked for five years in a penal colony, those close to the ornithologist believed the court would give her a fine or a sentence of forced labour\u2014a punishment in which convicts work at an assigned enterprise and part of their wages is deducted by the state. On the day of the verdict, no prison escort was to be seen in the corridor or in the small courtroom. The officers came in only once the judge was already reading out the sentence\u2014swallowing his words so badly that the defendant did not immediately realise she was facing real prison time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosenfeld was handcuffed and heard the rest of the sentence from behind the bars of the glass courtroom cage, known as the \u201caquarium\u201d. The escort officers flatly refused to accept a bag of essentials her friend had packed for the pre-trial detention centre\u2014a toothbrush, underwear and a couple of T-shirts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could always take things before,\u201d her lawyer protested, to no avail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A conveyor belt of cases against scientists. Counter-extremism police and the FSB\u2019s Fourth Service<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rosenfeld is not the only Russian scientist to be prosecuted over donations to FBK. In spring 2026, Mediazona<\/em> noticed that cases of \u201cfinancing extremism\u201d against employees of the Russian Academy of Sciences were arriving at Moscow courts one after another. We counted at least six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt six in the morning I couldn\u2019t work out what was going on\u2014drunks, or a courier, something like that. My wife went to the door first,\u201d one of the scientists told Mediazona.<\/em> \u201cI got dressed and went over. Then people in balaclavas came in. My first thought was that they were bandits. They grabbed me by the arms. Well, I tried to break free, of course, but it was no use. And then the handcuffs [went on]. Properly, mind you. I mean, they didn\u2019t cause me any physical pain, they didn\u2019t shove my face into the floor. They just made me kneel. And they took me to the kitchen and showed me the warrant. That\u2019s when I realised they weren\u2019t bandits, it was our own dear authorities. Thank God, a serious crime. And thank God, they won\u2019t torture me or kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rosenfeld case file contains testimony from a witness, Fyodor Klapov, an officer with Moscow\u2019s Centre E, the Interior Ministry\u2019s counter-extremism unit, notorious for harassing and persecuting opposition activists. He said that in September 2025 he had \u201creceived verification material\u201d on Rosenfeld from the 4th Department of Directorate \u201cP\u201d of the FSB\u2019s Fourth Service. The document stated that the scientist was \u201cpossibly involved in financing FBK\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same FSB unit appears in other donation cases. A year ago, a court in Dubna, a science town north of Moscow that is home to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, fined<\/a> physicist Dmitry Kazakov 300,000 roubles (about $3,600) for two transfers of 500 roubles ($6) each to FBK. According to the verdict, the security services turned their attention to the scientist after a letter classified \u201csecret\u201d from \u201cthe 4th Service of the UZKS of the FSB\u201d, which\u2014as later in the Rosenfeld material\u2014referred to Kazakov\u2019s \u201cpossible involvement\u201d in financing the foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not entirely clear which service was meant in Kazakov\u2019s case: the abbreviation UZKS points to the FSB\u2019s Second Service (the Directorate for the Protection of the Constitutional System), whereas the Fourth Service, also known as the SEB, handles \u201ceconomic security\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Mediazona<\/em> has established that the 4th Department of Directorate \u201cP\u201d of the FSB\u2019s Fourth Service initiated at least two further criminal cases for \u201cfinancing extremism\u201d against scientists over the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to<\/a> the investigative centre Dossier,<\/em> officers of Directorate \u201cP\u201d oversee Rostec<\/em> (the state defence and industrial conglomerate), Rusnano, Roscosmos,<\/em> oil and gas companies, major defence plants, nuclear power stations and gold-mining companies. It is reasonable to assume that the list of sectors under their \u201csupervision\u201d has recently grown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Centre E officer told [me] that [the Fourth Service] handles Skoltech<\/em> and the Higher School of Economics,\u201d one of the scientists against whom the FSB\u2019s Fourth Service had also initiated a case over FBK donations told Mediazona<\/em> on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And indeed, besides researchers at Academy of Sciences institutes, similar cases have been opened in Moscow against other scientists and lecturers. Mediazona<\/em> has learnt that they include at least three specialists from Skoltech,<\/em> the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, and the same number of employees of Rostec<\/em> subsidiaries. We also know of at least two cases against lecturers at the Higher School of Economics (HSE), one of Russia\u2019s top universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among them is 38-year-old mathematician Andrei Dymov, an associate professor at HSE and a senior researcher at the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the RAS. In May 2026, Moscow\u2019s Zyuzinsky District Court sentenced<\/a> him to three and a half years in a general-regime penal colony. Together with Rosenfeld, he is one of two scientists to have received custodial sentences for donating to FBK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Andrei Dymov. Photo: VKontakte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dymov signed up for donations on August 5, 2021, and sent FBK a total of 3,500 roubles, or $43. He pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientist worked at HSE for ten years and was named among the university\u2019s best lecturers three times: in 2022<\/a>, 2024<\/a> and 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey took him away a month ago, for show,\u201d an anonymous source told<\/a> the outlet T-Invariant<\/em> after the verdict. \u201cMasked men broke down the door of his apartment. Then they let him go for a while [on a travel restriction], and today came the sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When considering his appeal, the court agreed to admit a petition from HSE asking for Dymov\u2019s sentence to be changed to a non-custodial one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis absence even for two years will be a significant brake on the development of the subjects HSE is working on,\u201d the petition said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, in August the Moscow City Court upheld<\/a> the mathematician\u2019s prison sentence. Dymov\u2019s staff page on the university website is now unavailable<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other Academy of Sciences and Skoltech<\/em> employees accused of financing extremism were given fines or forced labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which scientists have already been sentenced over FBK donations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dmitry Nyudlchiev.<\/strong> In March 2026, Moscow\u2019s Savyolovsky District Court fined<\/a> 35-year-old Dmitry Nyudlchiev, a solutions architect at Filosofiya.IT, a subsidiary of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom,<\/em> 600,000 roubles, or about $7,300. According to the charges, on August 18, 2021, he set up a recurring donation of 100 roubles ($1.20) to FBK and transferred 700 roubles, or $9, to the foundation between August and February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yevgeny Onishchenko.<\/strong> In May 2026, Moscow\u2019s Tverskoy District Court sentenced<\/a> 54-year-old Yevgeny Onishchenko, a former researcher at the Lebedev Physical Institute of the RAS (FIAN), to 18 months of forced labour for transferring 5,000 roubles ($60) to FBK. Onishchenko has co-authored more than 70 scientific papers and led many projects funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), the country\u2019s main state grant-giving body for fundamental science. He studied the formation of quantum dots and the optical properties of semiconductors, and chaired the FIAN employees\u2019 trade union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandra Ozerova.<\/strong> On August 18, the Savyolovsky court fined<\/a> Skoltech<\/em> scientist Alexandra Ozerova 400,000 roubles ($4,830). Prosecutors had sought four years\u2019 imprisonment for seven donations to FBK totalling 7,000 roubles ($85). During one interrogation, Ozerova said she works on applying AI to drug discovery. According to the scientist, she \u201cliked Alexei Navalny\u2019s social policy\u201d and \u201cwanted to support vulnerable groups\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several more engineers and researchers have been given fines or forced labour by Moscow courts. Mediazona<\/em> reporters attended the hearings, but the defendants asked not to be named, a request we grant considering the circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They include a Skoltech<\/em> employee whom the Savyolovsky District Court fined 500,000 roubles ($6,000) in September for a 300-rouble ($3.60) donation, and a former employee of Proryv,<\/em> a Rosatom subsidiary, whom the Gagarinsky court sentenced to a month and a half of forced labour; he was subsequently dismissed \u201cby mutual agreement\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same Gagarinsky court, the trial of a researcher at the RAS Institute of Biomedical Problems is now under way. At the same time, Moscow is hearing a case against a researcher at another Academy of Sciences institute, prompted by three donations of 1,100 roubles ($13.30) each made in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, the Moscow police department placed<\/a> a junior researcher at Skoltech<\/em> on its wanted list; he is also accused of donating to FBK. His case reached the Savyolovsky District Court at the end of May. A preliminary hearing was due to be held at the end of June, but the defendant did not appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe work so as not to end up in prison\u201d. The mood in the scientific community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Why scientists and university lecturers have increasingly become defendants in \u201cfinancing extremism\u201d cases over the past year remains an open question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conversations with Mediazona,<\/em> one of the accused recalled that officers had openly referred to scientists in his presence as a \u201cbig category\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey said: \u2018There are a lot of your lot\u2019,\u201d he recalled the officers saying. \u201cThey said \u2018universities\u2019, but they meant the Academy of Sciences and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, several anonymous sources in academia told Mediazona<\/em> that they were not aware of any centralised or special checks at the Academy of Sciences or universities relating to possible FBK donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had a wave of checks,\u201d says an employee of one of the Academy\u2019s regional research centres. \u201cThere are periodic inspections, but they existed before 2022 too. They mainly look at maps and other formally restricted information. Very detailed maps are considered classified, something useful to the enemy. But that seems outdated to me, given all the modern online services. Still, some colleagues use them to look at terrain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exactly how the security services are identifying people who donated to FBK is still not entirely clear. One of the accused, for instance, remembered an officer telling her that the campaign had started with \u201cleaked Smart Voting lists\u201d\u2014a reference to Navalny\u2019s tactical voting scheme, whose sign-up databases have been leaked online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In available leaks of databases of Navalny supporters, Mediazona<\/em> found the names of 12 scientists who have become defendants in criminal cases since late 2025 (two others were not on these lists).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there are lists of those who donated,\u201d says another scientist, who asked not to be named. \u201cIt\u2019s worth making absolutely sure you definitely didn\u2019t do it. Before the search I\u2019d heard that a wave of these cases had begun, so I checked my email and found nothing. You need to look at your bank transactions, and very carefully: they\u2019re barely labelled at all, but it\u2019s definitely worth your time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who donated to FBK have become for the security services \u201can almost bottomless source of the simplest cases, where the courts don\u2019t bother establishing intent or awareness\u201d, he argues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the increase in prosecutions of scientists is more likely a consequence of the fact that, statistically, there were more people from science and education among donors than average. But I don\u2019t have enough data to test that hypothesis,\u201d he tells Mediazona.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientist concludes that for former FBK donors, the only safe way out now is to leave Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone who made transfers should assume that they will come for them too. It\u2019s important to understand that all conversations may be listened in on. You have to assume that all bank accounts and property transactions will be frozen. All phones, computers and storage devices will be seized and examined. During a search they will look for extremist literature and symbols,\u201d agrees another defendant in a \u201cfinancing extremism\u201d case, who also asked not to be named.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers often guess their colleagues\u2019 political views but prefer not to discuss them. As one biologist who asked not to be named points out, in this respect the scientific community is like any workplace where people hold different positions. Nevertheless, according to Mediazona\u2019s<\/em> sources, an oppressive atmosphere of self-censorship has now settled over the scientific world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt conferences, colleagues from Russia sometimes joke that we work so as to at least not end up in prison\u2014but how much of that is a joke and how much is truth, you can\u2019t tell,\u201d says a former researcher at ITMO University in St Petersburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the fear, the sympathies of the scientific community often lie with the persecuted. One Academy of Sciences employee convicted of \u201cfinancing extremism\u201d told Mediazona<\/em> that his managers did not demand that he resign, knowing him to be \u201ca decent person\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn a human level, they supported me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colleagues come to many scientists\u2019 hearings to show support. The management of institutes and universities is also in no hurry to dismiss staff facing prosecution. Andrei Dymov remained on HSE\u2019s staff right up until the appeal court upheld his prison sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the current defendants and convicts are leading specialists in their fields, as their colleagues openly state in court. Rosenfeld\u2019s contribution to science, for instance, was praised by one of Russia\u2019s leading physicists, Mikhail Danilov: \u201cShe is extraordinarily important to this work. Without her, it will all simply grind to a halt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editors: Anna Pavlova, Dmitry Tkachev<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-67716","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news-type-nashi-novosti-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRussia turns on its scientists. Donations to Alexei Navalny\u2019s foundation are landing researchers in prison - Political prisoners support. 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