NY Times about censorship at (Russian) St. Petersburg State University

Russian Professors Chafe at Scholarly Screening
Published: October 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/europe/28petersburg.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Word spread this month among the faculty members of St. Petersburg State University: According to a document signed on Oct. 1, they have to submit their work to administrators for permission before publishing it abroad or presenting it at overseas conferences.
The order, which was circulated internally and made its way onto a popular Internet forum, says professors must provide their academic department with copies of texts to be made public outside Russia, so that they can be reviewed for violation of intellectual property laws or potential danger to national security.
Administrators say they are simply bringing the university into line with Russia’s 1999 law on export control, passed after a decade in which some impoverished scientists sold strategic technology to foreign customers. But some professors are protesting, saying such a system is unheard of in Russian universities — and could be a step toward broader academic censorship...


Follow-up:

Major University in Russia Eases Fears on Rules
Published: November 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/europe/02russia.html?_r=2&hpw

MOSCOW — The authorities at St. Petersburg State University issued a statement last week announcing that researchers in the humanities and social sciences would not be required to submit to an export-control screening before publishing their work overseas, easing fears that new procedures would constrain academic freedom.
Professors at the prestigious Russian university raised objections in early October, when an internal university document was posted on a popular Internet forum. The document called for faculty members to provide copies of texts to be published abroad so that they could be reviewed for violations of intellectual property law or danger to national security.
Some professors responded with alarm, warning that bureaucratic barriers could hamper their efforts to publish and travel abroad, and fearing the requirement was a step toward greater academic censorship.
A statement released by the university on Friday explained that the export-control procedures applied only to research involving “dual-use technology,” nonmilitary techniques that could have military applications. Russia’s export-control law, passed in 1999, was intended to stem the flow of strategic research out of the country during the chaotic decade after the fall of Communism...