Svyatoslav Bobyshev and Yevgeny Afanasyev, both professors at Baltic State Technical University in St. Petersburg, Russia, were arrested on March 16, 2010, on accusations of espionage. They have since been held in pretrial detention, which was extended another 4 months in September 2010. The accusations relate to collaboration between Baltic State Technical University and Harbin Engineering University in China, in which the professors are accused of revealing state secrets. The chairman of the two professors’ academic department has denied the accusations. Their arrest and detention without trial comes at a time when scholars across Russia are becoming increasingly threatened with state and parastate forms of repression.

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