KIU in RBB24 - Susann Worschech about "How Russia makes work difficult for German scientists"
The article from rbb24 highlights how Russia is increasingly targeting German academic institutions and networks. Two major organizations — the German Society for Eastern European Studies (DGO) and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) — have been labeled by Russian authorities as "extremist" or "undesirable."
This classification has serious consequences: partners in Russia and allied countries risk imprisonment, frozen bank accounts, and travel bans. As a result, German researchers — including those at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) — are avoiding academic travel to Russia-friendly states.
Amid rising pressure from Russia on German academic institutions, Susann Worschech from the KIU (Kompetenzzentrum Internationale Zusammenarbeit) offers a clear warning.
As a political scientist and coordinator of the Ukraine Competence Network at Viadrina University in Frankfurt (Oder), and a board member of the German Society for Eastern European Studies (DGO), Worschech speaks out about the growing risks for scholars working in or with Eastern Europe. In light of Russia's labeling of organizations like the DGO and DGAP as “extremist” or “undesirable,” she emphasizes the danger of traveling to countries with intelligence ties to Moscow, such as Belarus, Kazakhstan, or Georgia: “It’s truly dangerous.”
Her perspective underscores the KIU’s mission — to support safe and informed international academic cooperation in politically sensitive regions. Germany’s Foreign Office supports this concern, stating that Russia is deliberately creating a “climate of fear and isolation.”
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