Key Points and Summary – The European Union has sanctioned Nikita Anisimov, the rector of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE), after the university launched a master’s program in “Sanctions Compliance”—a new curriculum widely seen as a “sanctions-busting” course.
-The two-year, $6,260 program is designed to teach Russian companies how to navigate and evade Western restrictions.
T-80 Tank from Russian Army. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-A former HSE professor described the course as part of a “Kremlin directive” to adapt the economy for a generation of conflict.
-A senior EU official mocked the move, joking that the sanction would give the rector “his own experience to share with students.”
Russia Has a New Plan to Beat Ukraine Sanctions
Last Thursday, October 23, the European Union (EU) sanctioned the rector of one of Moscow’s leading university business schools.
The governing body imposed sanctions shortly after the school announced a new course curriculum and a business degree specializing in circumventing Western sanctions.
The Moscow Times reported in July that the city’s Higher School of Economics (HSE) was opening a two-year master’s program on sanctions-busting. Continuing in the time-honored Russian tradition of always using labels that are the exact opposite of the object they are attached to, the offered degree is formally called a “Master’s in Sanctions Compliance.”
The program is described as the first of its kind in Russia. Its existence was initially reported back in July by the exiled science outlet T-Invariant.
The program’s description says it aims to train specialists in international corporate compliance and equip students with the skills to “identify and assess the risks of sanctions and other measures imposed by supervisory authorities on companies.”
According to the program’s announcement, the curriculum promises “vivid case studies illustrating real-life risk situations faced by Russian and international companies.”
For those not wishing to take the whole coursework for the two-year degree, HSE has also set up a shorter 136-hour professional development course, which is titled “Sanctions Compliance.” This special course commenced in September and will run online until November 14.
Sanctions Evasion is Financially Viable for Russian Educational Institutions
According to the program description, the coursework “combines the study of modern legal instruments, the current regulatory framework and the practice of applying economic sanctions.”
HSE’s Department of International Law previously taught Sanctions-related courses. But these two new programs represent a significant increase in this kind of specialized education—both in the size of the courses and in their accessibility to working professionals and students.
The annual tuition for the two-year course has been set at 490,000 roubles, or about US $6,260.
There are currently 20 seats in the program reserved for Russian citizens and two additional slots for international students. The program is also not funded by the Russian government, which means the university has seen sufficient demand for this specifically focused education to make it financially viable.
The tuition for the shorter 136-hour set of lectures and exercises is 84,000 rubles or US $1,070.
The description of this course reads that it “combines theoretical instruction with practical case studies” as they relate to the application of economic sanctions and the nature of various compliance mechanisms.
Igor Lipsits is a former HSE professor and a co-founder of the university. He told the T-Invariant representatives that expanding these courses was part of a broader Kremlin directive to build long-term resilience for Russia’s business community amid current international isolation.
“Everyone is seeing how Iran has lived under sanctions for 40 years. We may spend a long time living in this kind of a hostile environment, with all kinds of restrictions, and with increasing regulations over Russia’s business presence abroad,” Lipsits said to T-Invariant. “The Russian economy is adapting to life under sanctions for a generation.”
Part of the Latest Sanctions Package
The decision to sanction the university, published Thursday after EU leaders agreed on the 19th package of sanctions against Russia, is seen as largely symbolic. Among the other individual actions involved, the sanctions will freeze the assets of the rector, Nikita Anisimov, that he holds in Europe, “if indeed he has any,” The Moscow Times reported.
A senior EU official was quoted as saying, “We thought that it would be a good idea to sanction the rector of this university so that he can have the opportunity to share his own experience with students.” The same EU representative also added, “I hope this will be [seen as a] little trait of humor.”
Putin in 2025 Looking Stern. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
In the past week, the US announced it would impose the first new sanctions on Russia since Donald Trump took the oath of office as the US President in January of this year. Trump sanctioned the Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil; instead of applying tariffs to India and China, the major buyers of Russia’s oil, as he had previously threatened.
The sanctions evasion degree program is also not the only reason given for sanctioning Anisimov. In 2023, which was one year after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Anisimov announced his university would now fund the education of Russian soldiers partaking in the war, according to the EU’s legal documentation.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of the Asia Research Centre at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
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Swamplaw Yankee
November 3, 2025 at 2:03 am
Wow. A week goes by: not a single lawyer in the WEST has submitted their opinion or concern about this “illegality”. How many lawyers are there? 5 million? Legally stamped, 1 million? Not even a twitch from an academic or para-legal.
Must be 100 million academics out there.
Nor has this topic been cribbed by another Op-ed. What is up, world?
These groups then seem to be the ones, by default, ready to rubber stamp Genocide. Academics are passive approving of allowing the admission of current or former perpetrators of Genocide into their institutions. As long, as some sort of glib veneer of language is evoked, world Academics welcome the Butchers of Kremlins ruuzzkie ethnic group. Come on in, leave your tuition first. Genocide and/or sanction busting will never be spoken about untill your cash expires.
Lawyers will facilitate your sanction evasion needs, on receipt of payment. Yep. Got it, Just donate FREE LAND taken from Ukrainians to the Kremlin Putin terrorist elite.