Tim Tai

The Russian government designated Yale as an “undesirable organization” last week, criminalizing active affiliation with Yale and barring the University from activity in Russia.  

The declaration, issued by Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office, accused the Jackson School of Global Affairs’ World Fellows Program of training Russian opposition leaders, particularly activists in the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a non-profit founded by the late Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who participated in the World Fellows Program in 2010. The Anti-Corruption Foundation publishes investigations of alleged corruption by high-ranking Russian officials.

The declaration claims that Anti-Corruption Foundation activists have used the knowledge they acquired at Yale to escalate protest activity in Russia. The Prosecutor General’s office also alleged that Yale aims to violate Russia’s territorial integrity, undermine its economy and destabilize its socioeconomic and political situation. 

Russia’s 2015 “undesirable organizations” law imposes criminal penalties ranging from fines to multiple years in prison for active affiliates of blacklisted groups. Since the passage of the law, the government has assigned the label to hundreds of groups, such as media outlets and non-governmental organizations, viewed as threatening to Russian national security or the regime’s authority. Yale, Bard College and Brigham Young University are the three American academic institutions blacklisted under the law. 

Incoming 2025 World Fellow Mikhail Zygar, a Russian journalist who has criticized the Russian government and its invasion of Ukraine, was forced into exile after his channel — the last independent television show in Russia — was designated “undesirable” in 2022. 

“All Russians, Russian students, all people who live in Russia, will be barred from applying to the university, because according to Russian law about undesirable organizations, it’s a criminal offense,” Zygar told the News. “If any Yale student comes to Russia, he or she actually should be officially accused of collaborating with the undesirable organization, which is a crime.”

However, Zygar believes Russians who were previously affiliated with Yale, such as alumni, will likely not be punished retroactively.

Michael Cappello — director of the World Fellows Program at the Jackson School for Global Affairs from 2007 through 2015 and now a professor at the School of Public Health — said that the “undesirable” designation may have a “limited logistical impact” because many students and professors have already withdrawn from work in Russia. 

Yale has steadily cut ties with Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The University ended its partnership with Moscow State University, divested its financial holdings in Russia, rejected donations from sanctioned individuals and scaled back collaborations between the Yale School of Management and the Moscow-based Skolkovo School.

When reached by the News on the day of the declaration, Yale’s Office of Public Affairs and Communications acknowledged having seen news reports of Russia’s designation, but did not receive an “official notification” as of Tuesday. 

Yale’s ties to Russian opposition

During Navalny’s fellowship at Yale, he published a 300-page exposé on his blog, Navalny.ru, alleging that Transneft, a state-owned oil pipeline company, had embezzled $4 billion. 

“It was the effect of an exploding bomb when I revealed this report,” Navalny told the News in 2011.

Within weeks of publishing the report, Navalny was placed under investigation by Russian authorities, who launched a decade-long campaign of state harassment, arrests and detentions of Navalny. The activist died in a Russian prison under murky circumstances in February 2024, prompting international outcry and accusations of political assassination. 

Cappello told the News that Navalny’s time at Yale offered him a rare window to strategize and reimagine his impact on Russian civil society as a leader.

“He drew tremendous strength from relations and connections with other World Fellows from across the years and across regions, in particular people who were trying to create the same kind of change in their home countries that he was trying to do,” Cappello said.

During Navalny’s 2013 mayoral campaign in Moscow, Russian state media referred to Navalny as “the Yale World Fellow,” while Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov called for Navalny to be imprisoned for his connections to the “Imperial West.”

Navalny’s ties to the University are ongoing. Dasha Navalnaya, Navalny’s daughter, is an incoming student at the Jackson School, according to the Yale student directory. Michael McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, speculated that Navalnaya’s upcoming enrollment could have influenced Russia’s decision to designate Yale as an undesirable organization.

Other Russian World Fellows include Anna Biryukova and Leonid Volkov, both  Anti-Corruption Foundation leaders who worked on Navalny’s mayoral campaign, and Maxim Trudolyubov, who translated for The Moscow News —  an English-language online newspaper Russian authorities blacklisted in 2024. 

“I think Yale should wear this as a badge of honor, given the incredible achievements of Alexei and his colleagues in laying bare the corruption of their government,” Cappello said. “This designation is a testament to the impact of the World Fellows Program and to its ability to nurture future leaders who make a real difference.”

In 2007, one of Putin’s closest policy advisors, Elvira Nabiullina, who currently serves as the head of the Central Bank of Russia, was also named a World Fellow.

In its declaration of Yale as “undesirable,” Russia also accused the University of working to provide legal justification for the seizure of Russian assets frozen by Western governments to finance Ukraine’s military efforts. 

Harold Hongju Koh, former Yale Law School dean, wrote in an email to the News that “the claim is both absurd and mistaken.”

Koh, who advises Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on international law matters and represented Ukraine against Russia in front of the International Court of Justice, believes the accusation may be linked to an argument he made in a March 2024 Just Security article. Koh wrote that the article represents his personal view.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has barred dozens of American scholars, including at least three Yale professors, from entering the country.

The first class of Yale World Fellows was admitted in 2002.

Jake Robbins and Jaeha Jang contributed reporting.