Armenia detains Russian mathematician at Moscow’s request
Russian mathematician Mikhail Verbitsky has been detained at Yerevan airport at Moscow’s request; he is wanted in Russia on a terrorism-related charge.
Russian mathematician Mikhail Verbitsky has been detained at Yerevan airport at the request of Russia, according to writer Roman Leibov and independent Russian broadcaster TV Rain. Leibov reported that Verbitsky was detained at Russia’s request and, on the advice of Verbitsky’s lawyer, urged readers to share the information widely.
TV Rain said police at the Yerevan airport precinct confirmed the detention, stating that Verbitsky was on a wanted list in Russia. An officer said the mathematician was being held in a detention center in Yerevan.
Ani Chatinyan, a lawyer at the Yerevan office of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly “Vanadzor,” explained that Verbitsky was detained over a criminal case opened against him in Russia. She said that if Russia submits an extradition request, according to Armenian law, Verbitsky would be held for 40 days; otherwise, he would be released within 72 hours.
In January 2025, Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) added Verbitsky to its list of terrorists and extremists. He appeared with an asterisk, indicating a criminal case had been opened on a terrorism-related charge. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, citing sources, reported that Verbitsky had become a defendant in a criminal case involving calls to terrorism.
Verbitsky told independent Russian outlet Holod in an interview that he left Russia in 2015 and now lives in Rio de Janeiro, where he holds a professorship at the National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics.
He previously worked at the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics in Moscow and taught at the Higher School of Economics, the University of Glasgow, and the Free University of Brussels. He is known as a blogger and creator of “Tifaretnik,” a platform similar to LiveJournal. In his blogs, he described himself as a “communist,” “anarchist,” and “Satanist”; in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he supported the “Russian world” concept and the National Bolshevik Party.
In 2014, Verbitsky was a witness in the criminal case against essayist Boris Stomakhin, who was accused of inciting religious hatred, advocating extremism, and justifying terrorism.
