A criminal case was opened against the former associate professor of the Institute of History of St Petersburg University, Mikhail Belousov, under the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism (Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to Fontanka, the case was opened on June 26.
According to investigators, on February 22, at a meeting of the student council, Belousov denied the connection between Hitler's racial theory and the course of the Second World War, and also "publicly denied the facts established by the verdict of the International Military Tribunal." The historian himself told Fontanka that he had not received notice of the initiation of a case against him.
Belousov was fired from St Petersburg University in early June after a meeting of the ethics commission. The associate professor was accused of making insulting remarks about the student of the Faculty of History Fyodor Solomonov, who died in the war in Ukraine, on the Internet. Belousov stated that he had nothing to do with these publications.
Shortly thereafter, seven students of history were expelled from the university, accusing them of being ironic about the deceased Solomonov.
In the past, an administrative protocol was drawn up against Belousov on the “discrediting” of the Russian army. As reported in the Joint Press Service of the Courts of St. Petersburg, in October 2022, the associate professor “publicly expressed to students his opinion about the participation of the Russian Armed Forces in the war, and not in a special military operation, which deliberately discredited the goals and objectives for the use of the Russian Armed Forces ". In June 2023, the case was closed due to the statute of limitations.
