We condemn the arrest of Russian intellectual Boris Kagarlitsky

On July 26, a court in the North-Western city of Syktyvkar decided to detain Dr Kagarlitsky, a longstanding fellow of our institute, for two months ahead of a trial in September.

He faces charges of ‘justifying terrorism’, related to a social media post about the 2022 attack on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia.

Dr Kagarlitsky has been outspoken in his opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2022 Russian authorities declared him to be a "foreign agent". He faces up to seven years in prison if he is declared guilty. This would not be the first time he was been targeted. He was previously jailed for his writing and activism under Brezhnev, Yeltsin and on earlier occasions under Putin.

We stand in solidarity with Dr Kagarlitsky, as well as all others being oppressed for advocating peace and defending democratic rights in Russia.

We call for his immediate release.

You can find more information, including ways to support Boris as well as a petition you can sign at https://freeboris.info.

We recommend people visit https://freeboris.info and we have discontinued our petition. This way we can maximize international solidarity with Boris Kagarlitsky.

Prior to discontinuing our petition, this statement received support from more than 300 people including:

Naomi Klein
Yanis Varoufakis
Jayati Ghosh, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Medea Benjamin, CodePink
David Adler, Progressive International
Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South
Pablo Solon
Edgardo Lander, Universidad de Venezuela, Caracas
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies
Anthony Barnett, Co-founder, openDemocracy
Achin, Samar and Anish Vanaik and Pamela Philipose
Howard M. Wachtel, American University, Washington, DC
Mariano Aguirre
Maude Barlow, co-founder of Council of Canadians