Moscow. February 16. INTERFAX.RU – Director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology named after. Miklouho-Maclay of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Funk was fired, despite a letter from employees in his support, former State Duma deputy Alexei Zagrebin was appointed instead, reports the telegram channel of the Ministry of Education and Science.
“Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Zagrebin has been appointed acting director of the IEA RAS. His candidacy was previously agreed upon with the Russian Academy of Sciences,” the press release said.
Historian and ethnologist Zagrebin is known as a researcher of the ethnography of the Finno-Ugric nations, the ministry reported. For more than 20 years he taught at the Udmurt State University, headed the Udmurt Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and was deputy chairman of the presidium of the Udmurt Scientific Centre of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 2016 to 2019, he was a State Duma deputy and worked as a member of the Committee on Education and Science.
Previously, the director of the IEA RAS was Doctor of Historical Sciences Funk. Institute employees wrote an open letter to support him addressed to the head of the Ministry of Education and Science Valery Falkov. In the letter, they reported that since the summer of 2023, information had been spread verbally about Funk’s imminent removal from office and Zagrebin joining the institute as acting director.
“We consider these lies (other names of possible applicants were also mentioned) and the pressure on the director of our institute to be absolutely unacceptable,” the letter said.
According to the Anti-Imperial Block of Nations, such an appointment is a direct consequence of the fear of the rulers of the Russian Federation of its impending collapse. By placing officials specializing in Finno-Ugric issues in senior positions in the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Putin government intends to find effective levers of influence to “stifle” in the foreseeable future the growth of national self-awareness of the Finno-Ugric nations, because it holds the key to the collapse of Moscow identity.
