and tape recorders, only in cases stipulated by the international treaties of Russia.



The anachronistic references suggested the wording had been lifted from Soviet era documents.



While the Russian government refused to clarify the reasons for the order, some domestic analysts, as well as representatives of some leading domestic universities, suggested the decision was related to some recent cases of disclosure of classified information by Russian scientists to some Western research institutions, which the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) alleged could be affiliated to the CIA and MI6.



An example of this is the case of Viktor Kudryavtsev, an employee of the Central Scientific Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (TsNIIMash), who was arrested in July 2018. According to investigators, he sent classified data to Belgium’s Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics,relations of Russia with foreign countries, including as part of ‘Nauka’ and other similar projects.



“It has nothing to do with the implementation of any monitoring and control from the state of the activities of organisations that are currently under the jurisdiction of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.”



The spokesman of the press service, however, added that professors of many Russian universities also face restrictions during visits to various scientific organisations and similar organisations, primarily in West. Russian scientists and university professors are protesting against Soviet era-style controls over their contact with foreign colleagues as the government moves to implement a controversial order from the Ministry of Education and Science, approved in July, which imposed serious restrictions on their foreign activities.The scientists, many of whom represent some leading