MGIMO historian fired for article comparing Crimean annexation to Hitler’s Anschluss
The administration of MGIMO [Moscow State Institute of International Relations] has announced that it has dismissed Andrei Zubov who in early March wrote an article for the newspaper Vedomosti in which he said that Russias annexation of the Crimea was like that of Hitlers so-called Anschluss in 1938.
It asserts that Professor Zubov "consciously and repeatedly infringed the MGIMO internal rules and regulations regarding basic principles for corporate behaviour. Such warnings supposedly preceded the historians statements regarding events in Ukraine and the Crimea. He was officially informed that such statements were unacceptable and not in keeping with his status as an MGIMO professor on March 5.
MGIMO is an elite university with close links to Russias foreign ministry and the administration claims that Zubovs statements clash with Russias foreign policy and damage the learning process at the university.
Zubovs analogy with Anschluss which the university claims is "inappropriate and insulting" has been reiterated over the last month by many Ukrainian and foreign historians, analysts and media.