One of Russia's leading universities launches a master's program in sanctions circumvention

One of Russia's leading universities, the Higher School of Economics (HSE), will launch a master's program that teaches how to circumvent international sanctions in the new academic year. About it writes The Moscow Times.

The program is positioned as the first master's degree program in Russia specializing in identifying the risks of sanctions and "other measures of negative impact on companies by supervisory authorities."

The master's program will last two years and cost 490,000 rubles ($6,282) per year. There are no state-funded places. There are 20 places for Russians and two for foreigners.

In addition, the Russian HSE offers a shorter advanced training course "Sanctions Compliance", which will run from September 16 to November 14 in an online format.

It costs 84,000 rubles ($1,077). The program "combines the study of modern legal instruments, the current regulatory framework and the practice of applying economic sanctions."

As former HSE professor Igor Lipsyts explained, the emergence of such programs is a response to the Kremlin's request. According to him, Russia, like Iran, is preparing to live under sanctions for a long time, so it needs specialists who know how to circumvent them.

• In June, the Russian opposition publication The Insider found more than a dozen Czech companies that supplied equipment to Russiathat could be used for weapons production.