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Kremlin says has no idea of protest potential assessment program at Russian universities

A Russian newspaper reported citing its own sources that higher education institutions are voluntarily checking their students and lecturers for potential involvement in protests

© Yuri Smityuk/TASS

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MOSCOW, October 24. /TASS/. The Kremlin has no idea of the program for assessing protest potential at Russian higher education establishments, president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

"No, we have no idea. We have no information about that. I cannot tell you anything," he told journalists when asked whether this program is a Kremlin project. "No, of course not," he stressed.

The Russian Kommersant daily reported citing its own sources that Russian higher education institutions are voluntarily checking their students and lecturers for potential involvement in protests and refer their findings to state power bodies. Such checks, according to the newspaper, reveal that the faculties at Moscow-based universities are "conducting destructive propaganda of anti-state ideas."

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