Svetlana Misyats, senior researcher at the Institute of Philosophy (IP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was charged with fraud on a particularly large scale (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code) in a case of embezzlement of funds for a project to translate Aristotle’s works.
54-year-old Misiatus is a candidate of philosophical sciences, specializing in ancient philosophy and the history of Aristotelianism. As Kommersant learned, the investigation considers her involved in providing false information about the completion of the work.
According to investigators, as part of the project, the institute’s employees were supposed to prepare a complete academic collection of Aristotle’s works in Russian, including the translation of previously unpublished treatises and the study of the ancient Aristotelian tradition.
Project participants reported on the work completed and continued to receive funds, even though the research and translations were not fully completed. According to the investigation, some of the announced results did not exist or were in draft form.
In total, according to investigators, during the implementation of the project “The Legacy of Aristotle”, 16 million rubles allocated from the budget were stolen.
Svetlana Misyats was placed under house arrest on May 21, a day after searches of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences and its staff. She did not admit guilt for a month. Under the fraud clause, she faces up to 10 years in prison.
The case against Svetlana Misyats, like the research operations at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is considered political in the scientific community. About this, among other things, male Former Deputy Director of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and President of the Independent Institute of Philosophy in Paris, Yulia Senokaya. In her opinion, the claims against the Aristotle translation project are nothing but a pretext to put pressure on the institute.
In 2021, a public conflict broke out over the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Anatoly Chernyaev, a specialist in the history of Russian philosophy, was then appointed to head the institute, but the staff demanded that the “strange appointment” be reconsidered.
As a result, Abdusalam Gusinov became acting rector of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Chernyaev He was fired From the institute in 2023. Later, he and his supporters accused the institute of disloyalty to the Russian authorities. He was also summoned to participate in a new wave of attacks and pressure on the institute, as well as in the case against Mesiatis.