Russia bans International Baccalaureate over ‘Russophobia’

Russia has been increasing its isolation in technology, culture and education. Laure Boyer / Hans Lucas

Russia’s Prosecutor General has declared the Swiss-based International Baccalaureate “undesirable” on its territory, accusing the education group of promoting Russophobia and “non-traditional values.” The Geneva-headquartered organisation says its programmes are designed solely to raise education standards, not to advance politics.

On August 25, just a week before the start of the new academic year in Russia, the Prosecutor General’s Office declared the Swiss-based International Baccalaureate (IB)External link an “undesirable organisation.” Students and participants in IB programmes in Russia have lost the opportunity to obtain international diplomas that previously opened doors to leading universities worldwide.

On its website, the Prosecutor General’s Office described the IB as “shaping Russian youth according to Western templates”. Other accusations against IB include “imposing its own interpretation of historical processes, distorting widely known facts, engaging in anti-Russian propaganda, and inciting ethnic hatred.”

The move against IB didn’t come out of nowhere. It may be linked to Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Anna Kuznetsova. 2023 Anadolu Agency

International Baccalaureate in Russia

The IB, founded in 1968 in Geneva, works with more than 6,000 schools in over 160 countries.  As of August 2025, 29 schools in Russia offered IB programmes, with “Letovo”,External link an elite private school near Moscow, for several years ranked as the world’s best, basedExternal link on average IB results.

In Russia, the designation “undesirable organisation” means the group’s activities are considered a threat to state security, defence capacity, or the constitutional order. Organisations with this status are banned from operating in Russia, with both administrative and criminal penalties for violations.

Other foreign education and research institutions previously blacklisted include the Institute of International Education, the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public PolicyExternal link, the Norman Paterson School of International AffairsExternal link, EF Education FirstExternal link (Switzerland), and the Independent Institute of Philosophy.External link

The day after IB was declared undesirable, most Russian IB schools asked the International BaccalaureateExternal link to urgently terminate all contracts.

Political backdrop

The move against IB didn’t come out of nowhere, the news website for Russian academics in exile T-invariant reportedExternal link.

It may be linked to Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Anna Kuznetsova and Kremlin ally Konstantin Malofeev, as well as Maria Lvova-Belova who is facing an arrest warrant along with Vladimir Putin issued by the International Criminal Court over the deportation of Ukrainian children, according to T-invariant.

Kuznetsova was also reportedly behind calls for regional prosecutors and education agency RosobrnadzorExternal link to inspect all Russian IB schools. These inspections led to administrative cases against several teachers and administrators, T-invariant said.

Maria Lvova-Belova is facing an arrest warrant along with Vladimir Putin issued by the International Criminal Court over the deportation of Ukrainian children. hoto by Gavriil Grigorov / POOL / AFP

“There were checks all year long, lots of them. At ‘Letovo’ alone, there were several inspections in a single year,” one person who helped set up IB programs at multiple schools told the website.

According to T-invariantExternal link, children of senior officials including the governor of the Moscow region Andrey Vorobyov and Putin ally and Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor SechinExternal link were enrolled in IB schools until recently.

“The International Baccalaureate is an educational organisation and is not affiliated with any political body,” IB representatives told Swissinfo. “We regret that this decision may interrupt the education of schools and students,” they added.

The IB noted that it works with schools around the world, including in regions facing conflict, political instability, and shifting education policies.

Educational isolation

Teachers said the real conflict was over history: IB’s curriculum diverged from state narratives. “History is ideology now. How could the state tolerate this?,” one teacher explained to T-invariant.

“I think it’s obvious that it’s the children who will suffer,” wrote Ilya Zaslavskiy, a history teacherExternal link and social studies instructor at Le Sallay Dialogue School in France, in a Facebook post. “They will now have to choose: Either effectively abandon their IB studies and spend the year cramming for Russia’s Unified State Exam to enter local universitiesor urgently seek an IB school abroad, leave their classmates behind, switch to online study or leave Russia.” Zaslavskiy believes that IB teachers in Russia will quit the country or be forced to “adapt.”

Russia has been increasing its isolation in technology, culture and education.

In July, Russian prosecutors blacklisted Yale UniversityExternal link, citing its World Fellows programme attended by opposition leader Alexei Navalny. “Students are being trained for ‘global leadership’ but in reality, this means preparing opposition leaders of foreign states,” the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said. Russian media outlet ProverenoExternal link reported that Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina was accepted to the programme but did not attend.

Edited by Tony Barrett/ac