This autumn the Blavatnik School of Government (BSG) is to move into a new, purpose-built home at Oxford University as a result of USSR-born oligarch Leonid Blavatnik’s £75m donation in 2010.

Blavatnik has not been alone in seeking to collaborate with Oxford. His fellow oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven from Alfa-Bank gave a joint “award for excellence in foreign investment in Russia” with the Oxford Saïd Business School from 2007 to 2011.

All these oligarchs belong to a consortium of Russian billionaires called Access-Alfa-Renova (AAR). The consortium has long been accused of being behind a campaign of state-sponsored harassment against BP. In 2008-09 dozens of British and other western managers were forced out of Russia. As part of this campaign, Vladimir Putin’s FSB intelligence agency fabricated a case against two Oxford graduates. According to evidence from its jailed owner Sergei Bobylyov, Alfa-Bank oligarchs also raided a retail company called Sunrise.

Oxford University accused of 'distasteful joke' over oligarch's £75m donation Read more

The spy case and the attack on Sunrise involved the participation of Russian officials who are listed as gross human rights violators by the US Treasury in line with the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.

These corporate abuses took place in Russia with active official support. There was a backdrop of state-sponsored propaganda. Russian state media broadcast libellous assertions against western and Russian citizens. AAR went on to make billions from a highly controversial deal with Rosneft.

Oxford University apparently failed to investigate these facts, AAR’s track record from the beginning, and its close ties with the Kremlin.

We insist that the university should stop selling its reputation and prestige to Putin’s associates. It should carry out a new and independent due-diligence investigation with clearly defined ethical norms. Until then, politicians and other prominent public figures who endorsed the BSG or the joint awards with Alfa should withdraw their support.

We demand a vigorous public debate that involves students, alumni, tutors, NGOs, political dissidents and industry experts. We believe it is high time for transparency and procedural reforms at Oxford with regard to foreign donations and awards in order to ensure that in the future their acceptance will be beneficial to the university over the longer term.

After these disreputable cases, it is time to open a cleaner chapter in UK-Russia relations.

Ilya Zaslavskiy Graduate of Oxford University, founder and head of Oxford alumni society in Moscow (2004-10), former employee of TNK-BP

Vladimir Bukovsky Soviet dissident

Martin Dewhirst Lecturer in Russian language and literature at the University of Glasgow (1964-2000)

Daniel Macmillen Voskoboynik Graduate of Cambridge and former socially responsible investment officer at Cambridge University Students’ Union

Boris Kuznetsov Writer, lawyer, political immigrant

Sergei Bobylyov Founder of Sunrise company that was raided by people from Alfa with help of Russian officials from the Magnitsky list

Zara Murtazaliyeva Former prisoner of conscience fabricated by FSB as a terrorist

Nadiya Kravets Graduate of Oxford University; postdoctoral fellow, Harvard University

Vladimir Milov Former deputy energy minister, leader of Democratic Choice party of Russia

Andrei Sannikov Deputy foreign minister of Belarus (1995-96), winner of Bruno Kreisky international human rights prize (2005), former prisoner of conscience

Peter Reddaway Emeritus professor of political science, George Washington University

Dr Andrei Piontkovsky Senior visiting fellow, Hudson Institute

Andrey Sidelnikov Political immigrant, leader of the political movement Speak Up!

Catherine A Fitzpatrick Writer and translator; human rights activist

Pavel Stroilov Historian and writer

Mihály Fazekas Postdoctoral researcher, corruption expert, University of Cambridge

Vlad Burlutsky Greater New York Aarea coordinator, Free Russia Foundation, member of the Russian political party PARNAS, political asylee

Pavel Litvinov Soviet dissident leader, director of Andrei Sakharov Foundation

Cécile Vaissié Professor in Russian and Soviet studies, Rennes 2 University, France

Leonid Martynyuk Member of the political council of the Solidarnost (Solidarity) opposition movement, Boris Nemtsov’s co-author of the reports The Life of a Galley Slave and Winter Olympics in the Sub-Tropics

Marius Laurinavičius Senior fellow-in-residence, Center for European Policy Analysis

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