The Russian government has designated Tufts University and its Fletcher School as “undesirable organizations,” a finding the school says “effectively prohibits the university and the graduate school from having any activities or presence in Russia.”
In its announcement, which came last week, the prosecutor general’s office of the Russian Federation said Tufts and the Fletcher School have become “instruments of anti-Russian propaganda” since Russia launched its war with Ukraine in February 2022.
Tufts and the Fletcher School are located in Medford, Massachusetts. The latter is one of the United States’ best-known and most influential schools of global affairs.
The prosecutor general claimed that, in addition to taking a pro-Ukraine stance, Tufts and the Fletcher School have sought to “undermine public trust in [Russia’s] leadership, law enforcement agencies, and the Russian Armed Forces, and … create conditions conducive to the development of protest sentiments and the radicalization of society.”
The announcement also suggested that Tufts and the Fletcher School support the LGBTQ community “[i]n order to destroy traditional family and moral values of Russians.”
In a statement sent to faculty, staff and students, Tufts leadership noted that, under Russia’s “undesirable organizations” law, individuals connected to institutions with that designation face potential criminal prosecution. As a result, the statement said, Tufts “is discouraging travel to Russia and encouraging any Tufts community members who are currently in Russia to seek legal advice as appropriate.”
The statement also suggested that Tufts affiliates with Russian passports contact the school’s International Center.
A spokesperson for Tufts forwarded the statement to GBH News and said Tufts does not operate any active study abroad programs in Russia, but declined further comment.
In March 2022, the Fletcher School cut ties with the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, citing its support for the invasion of Ukraine. The Fletcher School ended its relationship with Russia’s National Research University Higher School of Economics that same month.
Other U.S. academic institutions designated as “undesirable organizations” by the Russian government include Bard College, Yale University, Brigham Young University, George Washington University and UC Berkeley.
Hundreds of other organizations worldwide, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have also received that designation.
Elizabeth Wood, a professor of history at MIT and expert on Russian politics and the country’s war with Ukraine, told GBH News that, on a practical level, the new designation is unlikely to change the way Tufts and the Fletcher School interact with Russia.
“My sense is that for Tufts, it may not make that much difference, because they are probably doing their programming, their events, their teaching, without sending anyone to Russia anyway,” Wood said. “Since Brittney Griner, since Evan [Gershkovich] from Wall Street Journal, no one is sending anybody to Russia. It’s entirely too dangerous. They would use American citizens as pawns; they would capture them; they would have trumped-up charges.”
However, Wood added, Russians who have worked with Tufts or the Fletcher School may experience a “dampening effect” as a result of the classification.
“Russian law is extremely capricious,” Wood said. “Would they go after people because of this designation? I don’t think so. I hope not. They would typically go after them for some other reason.”
But in theory, Wood added, Russian authorities could use the new designation of Tufts and the Fletcher School to retroactively punish Russian individuals who were previously linked to one or both institutions.
“They certainly could,” Wood said. “Their understanding of the law tends to be as a weapon the presidential administration uses for their own purposes ... They often use laws retroactively in one way or another.”
