Igor Zaitsev, an associate professor at the European University at St. Petersburg (EUSP), has been detained over donations to Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), according to a report by the Telegram channel Baza (widely believed to be close to the Russian authorities). Zaitsev, 58, is now the subject of a criminal investigation on charges of “financing terrorism.” The academic’s home was searched as part of the probe.
Russian investigators allege that in 2021 and 2022, Zaitsev transferred money to Navalny’s projects at least seven times. Zaitsev does not deny making the donations, saying he personally supported Navalny “because he believed that his anti-corruption work was beneficial.” Asked whether he continued donating to the ACF after the foundation was designated an “extremist organization,” Zaitsev answered: “Most likely, no.”
The Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF, also known by its Russian acronym FBK), is an NGO founded by the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. It investigates corruption by high-ranking Russian government officials and releases its reports in videos that attract millions of views. In 2017, its YouTube expose “He Is Not Dimon To You” (or “Don't Call Him 'Dimon'”) accused then-Prime Minister (and former President) Dmitry Medvedev of misusing an estimated $1.2 billion in state resources.
Another notable investigation, “Putin’s Palace,” released in 2021 shortly after Navalny’s arrest sparked nationwide protests, focused on the massive Black Sea residence that was built for Vladimir Putin using a complex web of corruption schemes. The property was estimated to have cost in excess of 100 billion rubles (over $1 billion). As of Nov. 27, 2025, the video has amassed 134 million views on YouTube.
The Russian ACF, along with Navalny’s network of regional headquarters, were declared extremist organizations in 2021. Two years earlier, in 2019, the foundation had been designated as a “foreign agent.” In Russia, the Anti-Corruption Foundation was formally liquidated as a legal entity in September 2021. In November 2025, the foundation’s arm in the U.S. — Anti-Corruption Foundation, Inc. — was designated a “terrorist organization” in Russia.
This is the second criminal case brought against an EUSP lecturer in the past month. Earlier, former university researcher Mikhail Turchenko was accused of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army, a charge Russian authorities use to prosecute statements about the war in Ukraine that contradict the Kremlin’s version of events. According to a report by the independent outlet Novaya Gazeta, Turchenko left Russia in 2022.
Igor Zaitsev holds a candidate of sciences degree in philosophy, roughly equivalent to a Ph.D., and is an associate professor and researcher at Stasis, the European University’s Center for Practical Philosophy.
The European University at St. Petersburg is a private graduate school in the social sciences and humanities and is widely regarded as one of Russia’s few remaining independent universities.
