Wallet vs science: a man convicted of plagiarism became the first vice-rector of Moscow State University

At the end of October 2021,on the university website in the section of the Academic Council, the former director of the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, Igor Abylgaziev, is listed as the first vice-rector, according to The Vyshka telegram channel. At the same time, it is not on the page of vice-rectors.

The last position of the first vice-rector was held by Viktor Sadovnichy before he became rector in 1992. Then he eliminated this position.

Igor Abylgaziev resigned from the post of acting. Director of ISAA in August 2021. He remained in charge of the Department of Political Science of the East and was appointed Vice-Rector of Moscow State University.

A scientist, one of the founders of the Dissernet project to combat scientific falsifications, Andrey Rostovtsev, tells about the career of the new vice-rector of Moscow State University:

“At the beginning of November it became known that the ex-director of the ISAA faculty, former federal inspector, reserve colonel I.I. Abylgaziev.

On this occasion, one recalls the events of almost eight years ago, when, on the eve of Abylgaziev's approval as director of ISAA, on December 19, 2013, he convenes a meeting of the Scientific Council of the Institute and brings up the issue of self-confidence for discussion. A non-standard move!

The fact is that not everything is in order with the doctoral dissertation of Professor Abylgaziev. By a strange coincidence, a significant part of the text of the professor's dissertation turned out to be identical to the earlier texts of other people's dissertations. And the final chapter of Abylgaziev's doctoral dissertation simply word-for-word almost fifty pages in a row coincides with the text of the book by P.P. Vladimirova “Special region of China. 1942-1945 ", published in 1973. In addition, the book is the diaries of the author's father, who worked as a TASS war correspondent in China in 1942-1945. That is, in fact, the text borrowed from Abylgaziev's doctoral dissertation appeared long before the birth of the doctoral student.

The famous Russian historian and orientalist Askold Ivanchik recalls how the orientalists of Moscow State University chose their director. Speaking to the assembled members of the Academic Council, I.I. Abylgaziev first told how he had been working on his doctoral dissertation for too long, and during this time parts of the still unpublished work could have been stolen by enemies and hastily published before his defense.

For some time, a recording of this performance was still kept on the Web. Then, apparently noticing that the bold hypothesis about enemies does not enjoy special confidence among the members of the Academic Council, the candidate for the post of director of the ISAA put the question bluntly: which is more important - an honest dissertation or the prosperous financial position of scientists at the institute (close to the text, from memory). Then the argument of financial position won out, albeit with a small margin.

The Dissernet collection currently contains more than a hundred rectors of Russian universities and directors of branches with written-off dissertations. We will carefully observe whether this gold collection will be replenished by the country's main university, which consistently occupies first place among Russian universities in prestigious international university rankings..."