RUSSIA:Many see the hand of Putin's United Russia party in the closing of a university with European links, write Danile McLaughlin.
IF THERE was one liberal, western-funded institution in Russia that had reason to feel immune to its growing suspicion of such places, then it was St Petersburg's European University.
Housed in a former royal residence on Gagarin Street near the river Neva, the university is noted for the quality of its teaching, its academic ties with Europe and the US, its independence from state control, and for the influence of its best-known supporter - Anatoly Sobchak, former mayor of St Petersburg and mentor to both President Vladimir Putin and the man who will succeed him after Sunday's election, Dmitry Medvedev.
An eminent professor who helped draft Russia's post-Soviet constitution, Sobchak taught both men law at Leningrad State University, and when he became mayor of the city and renamed it St Petersburg in 1991 he asked them to work for him.
One of the monuments to his progressive outlook in St Petersburg is the European University, founded in 1994, which seeks to forge links between Russian and foreign academics and bring western students to study in Russia's second city.
Now the university stands silent, however, closed by what officials call the strictures of fire safety rules but what opposition politicians see as yet another strike against an open society and free speech in the Russia that Putin is about to bequeath to Medvedev.
The university was shut down this month by state inspectors who deemed it a fire hazard, despite passing it fit in all previous checks.
Lectures for about 150 Russian students and 20 foreigners were suspended indefinitely, and attempts to find alternative premises have failed.
The university's rector has said the dispute is either a misunderstanding or some kind of orchestrated campaign, but he refuses or is unable to say who is behind it.
Others clearly see the hand of United Russia, the pro-Putin party that dominates all aspects of Russian political life and many areas of finance and culture.
They note that a United Russia deputy lambasted the university last year over its EU-funded programme to provide more information about elections and election monitoring in Russia, a sensitive subject following persistent western criticism of Putin's attitude towards democracy.
Political pressure forced the university to drop the course earlier this year but Maxim Reznik, head of the liberal Yabloko party in St Petersburg, said that was not enough to satisfy the city's pro-Kremlin officials, who he believes are behind the closure.
"No doubt, it's about politics. Fire inspections are just an excuse," he told local media.
"The situation surrounding the European University is just another link in the chain. It's another example of the authoritarian regime moving up a gear toward totalitarianism. Previously it allowed people not to like it, but now it doesn't allow even that."
Last November, Putin tore into Russia's western-funded NGOs, admonishing them for "skulking around foreign embassies, foreign diplomatic offices, counting on the support of foreign foundations and governments, and not on the support of their own people".
Soon after, the Kremlin shut down offices in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg belonging to the British Council, a cultural organisation that Medvedev said this month was "involved in gathering information and conducting intelligence activity". Laws on NGOs and "extremism" promulgated by Putin have led to the closure of Russian charities working on everything from gay and lesbian issues to helping the restive region of Chechnya.
This month Kenneth Roth, the head of Human Rights Watch, was denied a visa to Russia to compile a report on its increasingly draconian attitude towards NGOs; Roth said it was the first time a member of his organisation had been barred from entering Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In a scathing report on Putin's legacy, Amnesty International said this week that his laws had had "a chilling effect on freedom of expression", and that "human rights defenders and human rights organisations which are funded from abroad, are particularly targeted for harassment and intimidation". After the chaos and impoverishment of the 1990s, Putin has helped Russians rediscover their national pride with a foreign policy that regularly tweaks the nose of western nations and relies strongly on the oil and gas wealth that has flooded state coffers.
He has made clear that Russia will no longer be picked on and patronised by foreigners, and he will not let the Kremlin's grip on power be undermined by the kind of western-backed NGOs that helped foment "coloured" revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia.
Mr Medvedev insists that there will be a place for civil society in his Russia, but his recent advice to foreign-funded groups contained a clear warning: "If someone allows you in their home - act decently."