Ekaterina Trubnikova

Ekaterina Trubnikova is an independent researcher. She holds a PhD in Economics and has over twenty years of academic experience. Before leaving Russia in 2022, she served as an associate professor at HSE University. Her research focuses on corruption and predatory behaviour in academia. She has contributed to several projects on academic freedom, and her articles have been published in renowned journals such as Minerva and Economic Affairs, as well as in leading Russian academic journals.

The project

Title: The Burden of the Soviet Legacy and Westernization: What Shaped the Development of Russian Universities?

"The transformation of the Russian academic landscape has been marked by a shift from the chaotic market formation of the 1990s to a recent trend towards the militarisation and armament of universities. The liberalisation phase of the first post-Soviet decade, characterised by weak state control over the educational and scientific spheres, was short-lived. Despite numerous reforms, the Russian academic environment has not escaped the Soviet legacy, and some elements have even been exacerbated, paving the way for a re-autocratisation of the university system. This project aims to conduct a retrospective analysis of the evolution of state control over the academic environment in Russia and to identify strategies for countering authoritarian tendencies within academia."

Selective Bibliography

• Trubnikov, D., Trubnikova, E. (2024). From Bogus Journals to Predatory Universities: The Evolution of the Russian Academic Sphere Within the Predatory Settings of the State. Minerva 62, 49–68.
• Trubnikova E. (2024) Science and Higher Education in Russia since 1991 in Mierau Ju. (ed.),E.Trubnikova, D.Dubrovskiy, Ye.Albitskii (2024) Academic Freedom in Russia: State Repression and its Influence on Academic Practice. SCIENCE AT RISK Monitoring Report. 2024.
• Trubnikova, E. I. (2022). The Exchange of Gifts in the Academic Sphere: Predatory Practices, False Signals, and Conflicts of Interest in Excellence Programs. Mir Rossii, 31(1), 25-48.
• Trubnikova, E.I. (2021). Academic mobility or the russian style networking? Voprosy Ekonomiki, vol. 3, pp. 139–151.
• Trubnikova, E. (2020). Project 5-100: A View through the Prism of the Theory of Institutional Corruption. Mir Rossii, vol. 29, no 2, pp. 72–91.