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I forward below a letter from Nikolai Vakhtin, Rector of the European University at St. Petersburg, characterizing the university's current situation and asking for assistance from colleagues. As you may recall from an earlier announcement on this list, EUSP was temporarily closed last week (11 Feb. 2008) for "fire violations". The university responded immediately and cooperatively with the fire inspector's office and the court, correcting many of the violations, and its case was brought back into court today (18 Feb. 2008). EUSP was hoping the court would allow them to reopen; instead, the court ordered the university to be closed for 90 days.I draw particular attention to Vakhtin's plea in his letter not to politicize this, which would cause greater harm to EUSP. An example of a letter of support (in Russian) delivered in a measured tone can be seen on the website of Fontanka.ru:http://www.fontanka.ru/2008/02/13/082/ You can follow the latest developments in this situation at the following links: http://kommersant.com/p851415/Vote_observer_university/http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2008/02/12/012.html And for those who read Russian, you can see the university's own press releases: http://www.eu.spb.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=682&Itemid=121 ----- Original Message ----- From: Nikolay Vakhtin <[log in to unmask]> Dear friends, The court decision today was negative. This means that activities of EUSP are still suspended. We discussed the state of affairs down here and decided to ask for your support, and ask you to undertake whatever actions you may think proper. Please, do all you think might help EUSP. It may take the form of press interviews or petitions to St. Petersburg city or other authorities. The only thing to avoid is excessive (and primitive)politicization - like the caption NYTimes used. Whoever is now playing this political card trying to position EUSP as a dissident organization is doing harm to the EUSP. T he problem is that all violations that fire service has found in our building are quite real - same as in any other building in St.Petersburg. Today in court they could let the court take favorable decision. They did not - we do not know why. We do not have any facts confirming political reasons or hidden interests, although the pattern of multiple committees that suddenly decided to inspect us prompts the version of an orchestrated pressure against EUSP. The irony is that Dmitrii Medvedev, the main contender for next presidency, made the rule of law his central theme, specifically targeting his campaign against selective application of laws. Moreover,administrative measures are being used against one of the most advanced and innovative educational institutions, which, again, goes against the whole spirit of M's election campaign. To sum up, any reasonable steps are very welcome. Extreme actions can harm us but confident voice of the civil society can only help. We will keepyouposted on the latest developments. Let us know if you need extra info oranything from us. You are free to forward this letter to whoever you think might help. Thank you. Nikolai Vakhtin