Category: Uncategorized

February 1, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

We are writing to you because you are organizing “Recent Advances in Classical Algebraic Geometry”, a satellite conference to the International Congress of Mathematicians 2022.

The international mathematical community is deeply concerned about the situation of Azat Miftakhov, the graduate student from Moscow State University who has been detained by Russian state authorities since February 2019. Azat is recognized as a political prisoner by the Russian human rights organization “Memorial”. The mathematical societies of Brazil, France, Italy and the US have issued statements of concern. This recent petition in support of Azat has been signed by more than 3000 mathematicians from more than 15 countries. You can find more information on this matter in our fact sheet.

On January 18, 2021 Azat was convicted and sentenced to 6 years of prison. Our committee is monitoring this case. We intend to continue to support Azat until he is released and his rights are fully restored. While Russia is going to host the ICM in less than two years, Miftakhov’s trial reminds us of the host country’s frequent violations of human rights and repression of freedoms, which are regularly condemned by human rights organizations.

On January 4, 2021, we sent a letter concerning the case of Azat Miftakhov, signed by 47 mathematicians, to the members of the Executive Organizing Committee and Local Organizing Committee of the International Congress of Mathematicians. We believe that the ICM organizers are in a position to communicate effectively with the state authorities in order to free Azat.

We are also very concerned about the news of Alexander Kuznetsov’s arrest on January 31 for peacefully protesting the detention of Alexey Navalny and about the possibility that he may be sentenced to prison and a substantial fine.

We kindly ask you, as the organizers of a satellite event, to take an active position on Miftakhov’s case. Our committee would be grateful to hear of any action you plan to take in his support. Please don’t hesitate to write to us if you need any assistance or information. Consider supporting Azat through your conference web page. You may also consider communicating with the ICM organizers to demand that they take action.

We hope that you will continue to follow the case of Azat Miftakhov and will continue to evaluate your conference’s association with ICM 2022. Attending the congress or its satellite conferences while our colleague Azat Miftakhov is arbitrarily imprisoned will pose a serious dilemma for us and for the entire mathematical community.

Sincerely,

The Azat Miftakhov committee:

Ahmed Abbes, mathematician, Director of research at CNRS, Paris

Michel Broué, Professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Paris

Chandler Davis, Professor emeritus of mathematics, University of Toronto.

Fabien Durand, Président de la Société Mathématique de France, Professor of mathematics, Université de Picardie Jules Verne

Ivar Ekeland, FRSC, Professor emeritus of mathematics and former President, University of Paris-Dauphine

Dennis Gaitsgory, Professor of mathematics, Harvard University

Michael Harris, Professor of mathematics, Columbia University

Ilya Kapovich, Professor of mathematics, Hunter College of CUNY, Chair, Committee on the Human Rights of Mathematicians, American Mathematical Society

Raphaël Rouquier, Professor of mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles

Masha Vlasenko, Professor at the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences

The SMAI and the SMF sent a letter on February 1, 2021 to the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs asking to mandate a representative of the French Embassy at the appeal trial of Azat Miftakhov in order to ensure that this takes place in accordance with national and international law.

A call for the immediate release of students arrested in Moscow during the protests on January 31, 2021.

Based on anonymous testimony, a Moscow court sentenced an anarchist mathematician to six years behind bars over a broken window.

Meduza News, January 21, 2021

More than 50 academicians, corresponding members and professors of the Russian Academy of Sciences published an open letter dedicated to the case of Azat Miftakhov. “The punishment already borne by Azat does not appear to be commensurate with the crime he is alleged to have committed, and the sentence of six years in a penal colony requested for him by the state prosecutor provokes our indignation. We urge the court to release Azat Miftakhov ” wrote, in particular, the Russian academicians.

Fifty Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “We Urge the Court to Release Azat Miftakhov”

Mathematicians appalled and horrified by the verdict of Golovinsky District Court in Azat Miftakhov case, condemning him to “6 years in prison with serving a sentence in a general regime colony”, “in conditions of isolation from society in a general regime colony.”

The international mathematical community is gravely concerned about the situation of Azat Miftakhov, a graduate student from Moscow State University who has been imprisoned by Russian state authorities for nearly two years.

We are appalled and horrified by the verdict of the Golovinsky District Court in Moscow, as announced today (18 January 2021).

“We find Azat Fanisovich Miftakhov guilty of disorderly conduct in collusion with a group of persons, motivated by political hatred, using an object as a weapon, and sentence him to six years imprisonment in a medium-security penal colony, ” the judge announced in his verdict. 

“Miftakhov’s rehabilitation is possible only in isolation from society in a medium-security penal colony,” the court decided.

Miftakhov’s defence team announced that it would appeal the verdict.

“Of course, we will appeal. We insisted on an acquittal,” lawyer Svetlana Sidorkina told Tass.

We have been following Miftakhov’s case since October 2020, and we have come to believe that the charges against him are a pure invention of the Russian authorities.

On January 4, 2021, we sent a letter concerning the case of Azat Miftakhov, signed by 47 mathematicians, to the members of the Executive Organizing Committee and Local Organizing Committee of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) that will be held in Saint  Petersburg in 2022. We also alerted the International Mathematical Union.

A recent petition in support of Azat Miftakhov has been signed by more than 3000 mathematicians from more than 15 countries.

Over fifty academicians, corresponding members, and professors of the Russian Academy of Sciences published an open letter about the Miftakhov case.

“The punishment already borne by Azat does not appear to be commensurate with the crime he is alleged to have committed, and the sentence of six years in a penal colony requested for him by the state prosecutor provokes our indignation. We urge the court to release Azat Miftakhov,” the Russian academics wrote, in particular.

Professor Anatoly Vershik, former president of the Saint Petersburg Mathematical Society, member of the European Academy of Sciences, Humboldt Prize laureate, and chief researcher in the Saint Petersburg section of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics (Russian Academy of Sciences), told Novaya Gazeta on January 10, 2021: 

“We mathematicians are meticulous people, we need proofs. Gradually, even the most conservative skeptics have realized that the situation around Azat Miftakhov is absurd.”

A fact sheet on the case of Azat Miftakhov can be found here. A French version is available here.

We will continue to monitor Miftakhov’s case and render him our support until he is released, and his rights are fully restored. We hold the Russian authorities directly responsible for the safety and physical and moral integrity of our colleague.

[Signatories]

Ahmed Abbes, mathematician, Director of research at CNRS, Paris

Michel Broué, Professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Paris

Chandler Davis, Professor emeritus of mathematics, University of Toronto.

Adrien Deloro, Associate professor of mathematics at Sorbonne Université

Fabien Durand, Président de la Société Mathématique de France, Professor of mathematics, Université de Picardie Jules Verne

Ivar Ekeland, FRSC, Professor emeritus of mathematics and former President, University of Paris-Dauphine

Dennis Gaitsgory, Professor of mathematics, Harvard University

Michael Harris, Professor of mathematics, Columbia University

Ilya Kapovich, Professor of mathematics, Hunter College of CUNY, Chair, Committee on the Human Rights of Mathematicians, American Mathematical Society

Barry Mazur, Gerhard Gade University Professor, Harvard University

Raphael Rouquier, Professor of mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles

Masha Vlasenko, professor at the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences