Jailed Russian mathematician Miftakhov publishes proof of Chui's Conjecture in French journal
Russian political prisoner and mathematician Azat Miftakhov solved a mathematical problem while imprisoned, and the resulting paper has been published in a French journal — his third foreign publication since his arrest.
The French mathematics journal Revue de la filière mathématique has published a paper by jailed Russian political prisoner Azat Miftakhov addressing what is known as Chui's Conjecture in the setting of a Hilbert space. According to a Telegram post from the group supporting him, Miftakhov worked out the solution while being held in a prison in Dimitrovgrad.
French mathematician Bernard Randé, a member of the international group supporting Miftakhov, helped secure the paper's publication. Per the group's Telegram channel, FreeAzat!, this marks the third paper Miftakhov has had published abroad since his arrest.
Years in custody
Miftakhov is an anarchist and former graduate student at Moscow State University who has been held in custody since February 2019. He was initially sentenced over an alleged plan to attack the office of the ruling United Russia party, and was later convicted under a law criminalizing the "justification of terrorism."
Since April 2026, Miftakhov has been held at the "Polar Owl" penal colony in Kharp, located in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. Opposition politician Alexey Navalny died in February 2024 at a different facility in the same town, known as "Polar Wolf."
Revue de la filière mathématique was established in 1890 and is published on a quarterly basis.
