Komi scientist Zyuzev sentenced to seven years

The Supreme Court of the Republic of Komi has handed down a guilty verdict against Nikolai Zyuzev, a Doctor of Philosophy, who was arrested last summer. He was charged with high treason, which, according to the authorities, consisted of aiding a foreign state or organisation and was allegedly directed against the security of the Russian Federation. He was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, one year of which he must serve in a strict-regime penal colony.

The investigation ‘established’ that in February 2022, Zyuzev developed a project that was allegedly directed against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation. According to the Russian authorities, the project envisaged 12 lines of action, including the training abroad of leaders of national liberation movements of the small ethnic groups of the Russian Federation, the dissemination of extremist material, and the collection and analysis of information on behalf of European Union government agencies and research centres.

The investigation has also ‘revealed’ that, for this purpose, Zyuzev received two million euros from a total of 12 different foreign funds (in France, Germany and the UK), the activities of most of which have been declared undesirable in Russia.

Absurd confessions

At the court hearing, Nikolai Zyuzev fully admitted his guilt and allegedly revealed the identities of those involved in the crime.

In a video published on the Komiinform website — a news portal for the Komi Republic controlled by the Russian authorities — Zyuzev explains that his activities were initially educational in nature: to create a website designed to train active Russian journalists to set up media centres and websites. The aim of these websites, in turn, was to “incite inter-ethnic hatred and destabilise the situation in Russia by publishing critical material”. In the West, Russia’s multi-ethnic nature is generally regarded as a weakness, which is why the West also seeks to portray ethnic groups as being oppressed, noted Zyuzev. However, the foundations supporting this work also wield political influence and form part of an aggressive campaign aimed at dismantling the Russian Federation, Zyuzev confessed.

The roots of such bizarre confessions in Russia stretch back to the distant 1930s, when, during interrogations, it ‘transpired’, amongst other things, that the national intelligentsia of Russia’s Finno-Ugric peoples wished to establish a confederation of Finno-Ugric states under a Finnish protectorate and secede from the Soviet Union. Of course, it also ‘came to light’ during the investigation that all activists from the Finno-Ugric peoples were spies for Finland and Estonia and were working in their interests.

Nikolai Zyuzev

Nikolai Zyuzev, of Komi ethnicity, holds dual citizenship; he is also a Canadian citizen. In recent years, he has lived mainly in Canada, visiting his homeland in the Kotkeros District of the Komi Republic from time to time.

Nikolai Zyuzev graduated from Moscow State University, where he also defended his candidate’s and doctoral theses. He worked at Syktyvkar State University, whilst also holding posts at the universities of Toronto and Vilnius. Nikolai Zyuzev’s main area of research was the academic legacy of the Komi philosopher and founder of modern sociology, Pitirim Sorokin (1889–1968), on which he has published several books.