Lex Libertas

The European University in St. Petersburg was closed last month due to fire code violations. The university is currently taking steps to fix all the complaints, and will hopefully reopen soon. Some have questioned the timing of the closure:

Maxim Reznik, the head of the St. Petersburg branch of Russia’s liberal Yabloko faction, said the real reason for the order was an election monitoring course funded by the European Union. “No doubt, it’s about politics,” Reznik said. “Fire inspections is just an excuse. It’s another example that the authoritarian regime is going to the new stage, to the stage of totalitarianism.”

One of the specialties of the Russian authorities is using technicalities to shut down opposition groups (civil society, political parties, and even business competitors). It may be the case that the school did actually violate the code, but so do lots of other places. In fact, the state university dormitory was a virtual deathtrap. There were several exits, but all were locked, except one single door in the front. So the question becomes, is there selective enforcement, based on location and timing?

In the end, for whatever reason, this semester will have been interrupted for two months or more - at a time when its class on election-monitoring would have been especially informative.