‘A clear message to the elites’ Russia’s IB ban cuts off students’ best route to foreign universities — and undermines their chances in domestic ones
On August 25, one week before the start of the academic year, the Russian authorities declared the Swiss-based International Baccalaureate (IB) an “undesirable organization.” According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, IB “shapes Russian youth according to Western models” and “promotes non-traditional values.” By the end of the summer, all mentions of Russian schools that had partnered with the program had disappeared from its official website. Meduza explains how Russia’s IB ban has affected the country’s elite schools and what this will mean for their students.
Nearly 6,000 schools worldwide participate in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, which was established in Switzerland in 1965. A source who works within the IB system told Meduza that the curriculum is built around two core principles. The first, she said, is a focus on developing students’ practical skills rather than delivering prepackaged knowledge. “Knowledge isn’t handed to you [in the IB system],” she explained. “It has to be discovered by the children themselves, and they have broad opportunities to follow their own interests.”
The second core value is the development of a global perspective. “IB consciously fosters a kind of supranational identity — what you might call cosmopolitanism,” the source said. “In IB, this is referred to as international-mindedness, meaning awareness of a wide range of cultures.”
Before the Russian authorities declared the IB program “undesirable” in August 2025, 29 schools across the country were participating in it, including institutions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaluga, Vladivostok, Kazan, and other cities. One of them, the Letovo private school in Moscow, ranked first in academic performance among all IB schools worldwide in 2024.
Before the Russian authorities banned IB as “undesirable” in August 2025, 29 schools in Russia had joined the program, including ones in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaluga, Vladivostok, Kazan, and other cities. The most well-known of them, the private Moscow school Letovo, ranked first in academic performance among all IB schools in 2024.
Russian institutions had fully integrated all three IB programs: the Primary Years Programme (for ages 3–12), the Middle Years Programme (12–16), and the most prestigious, the Diploma Programme (16–19). Upon completing the two-year Diploma Programme, students would sit for standardized international exams and receive an IB diploma recognized by universities around the world — effectively bypassing the need for additional exams or certifications to apply to study abroad.
Several IB schools in Russia had ties to the country’s political elite. Khoroshkola, an IB-affiliated school in Moscow, was founded by Sberbank CEO German Gref. The Primakov Gymnasium, located in the Moscow region and named after former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, also offered IB programs. Its board of trustees includes Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Moscow region Governor Andrey Vorobyov, and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin. In Kazan, the director of the International School, Niyaz Gafiatullin, was elected to Tatarstan’s parliament in 2019 as a member of United Russia.
Tuition at these schools was steep. Public schools offering the IB program charged at least 500,000 rubles ($5,900) annually, while private institutions set fees ranging from 1.5 to 2 million rubles ($17,800–$23,700) or more. Children of Russia’s top officials were among the students. Gleb Siluanov, son of Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and Ivan Sechin, son of Igor Sechin, both attended IB-affiliated schools.
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According to The Insider, other IB students included the son of presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky and the child of Russian Education Minister Sergey Kravtsov. However, following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, both officials withdrew their children from their IB schools.
In March 2022, IB Director General Olli-Pekka Heinonen issued an open letter condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and expressing solidarity with schools affected by the war. At the time, his stance did not impact the IB program’s operations in Russia.
That changed in late summer 2025, when the Prosecutor General’s Office accused IB of aligning its curriculum with what it called the “Russophobic line of the collective West.” According to officials, IB teaching materials contained “calls for Russia’s international isolation” and “materials discrediting the Russian army.”
What Russia’s IB ban means for the country’s students
For their first nine years of schooling, students at Russia’s IB partner schools followed the national curriculum but used International Baccalaureate concepts and assessment criteria, according to a teacher who previously worked at one such school in Russia and now teaches at an IB institution in Europe.
After that came high school, when students would choose six subjects to study in depth. The curriculum included three mandatory components: an extended essay on a topic of their choice, the Theory of Knowledge course (which is designed to develop critical thinking skills), and CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service), which involves extracurricular and volunteer activities.
Instead of taking Russia’s standard college aptitude test, the Unified State Exam (EGE), IB students in their final year would take IB exams and receive a diploma that gave them the opportunity to apply to top universities worldwide. But now, Russian IB students find themselves in a tough situation: in spring, they’ll have to take the EGE, which they’ve never prepared for (EGE preparation in ordinary Russian schools usually starts in grade 10).
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“What will happen to high school students, especially those who just entered 11th grade, is the biggest question,” the teacher said. “Because the IB high school program is completely different — it teaches very different things than the Russian system. It’s unlikely that an IB graduate will [receive a high score] on the EGE.”
Starting in 2026, students will no longer receive internationally recognized diplomas. For many families who chose the IB specifically as a pathway to studying abroad, this shift makes overseas education far more difficult. At the same time, the number of state-funded university spots in Russia is shrinking, and competition for top institutions via the EGE is intensifying.
Another concern is financial. Under Russian law, making payments to an “undesirable organization” is classified as an administrative offense, creating legal risks and obstacles for families seeking refunds on previously paid IB tuition.
For school administrators, the ban came as a surprise. One principal told the outlet Mel that some schools are exploring alternatives, such as the British A-Level system, which also offers a route to international education. However, the principal noted, far fewer universities worldwide accept A-Levels compared to IB.
The director of the International School of Kazan, Niyaz Gafiatullin, told Mel that British accreditation bodies had already “withdrawn their support from Russian schools and ceased operations in Russia.” “We don’t want to cling to a system that has rejected us,” he said, adding that the loss of IB will reduce the number of Russian students able to study abroad.
Sergey Faldin, a journalist and graduate of Moscow Gymnasium 45, described the IB program as life-changing. Speaking to Meduza, he said: “For me and many of my friends who completed IB, it was a very important social elevator — probably the most important one. Because it allowed us to leave Russia, to get an education and a job abroad, and to build our lives the way we wanted. Without that elevator, people won’t leave Russia or enter [foreign] universities.”
Many schools have already removed information about their participation in the IB program from their websites. For example, until early September, the main page of the Moscow European Gymnasium’s website carried a disclaimer: “Due to the designation of the International Baccalaureate on August 25, 2025, as an undesirable organization in Russia, all pages of the European Gymnasium website are closed for content compliance with Russian legislation.” But now, there’s no longer any mention of IB on the site. The website of the Skolkovo Gymnasium, another IB partner, was inaccessible at the end of August, and by September, all information about cooperation with the Swiss foundation had been removed.
Why IB? Why now?
The Russian government’s decision to designate the IB program as an “undesirable organization” fits into a broader campaign against international educational institutions. Earlier this year, the Prosecutor General’s Office issued similar rulings against Yale University and the British Council, the latter of which administers the IELTS English exam.
However, the IB ban is the first time such a measure has directly impacted schoolchildren.
“Studying under the IB program is extremely expensive and only offered at a small number of schools,” said a sociologist who was previously affiliated with the Higher School of Economics’ Institute of Education. “Elite education in Russia has long existed in its own niche, untouched by reforms. But given the broader shift toward a conservative cultural and educational agenda, these bans are sending a clear message to the elites.”
The crackdown on IB began in April 2025, when Anna Kuznetsova — Russia’s former children’s rights commissioner and now deputy speaker of the State Duma — formally requested that prosecutors investigate IB-affiliated schools for compliance with what she described as Russia’s “spiritual and moral values.” In her statement, Kuznetsova argued that the IB should be banned because it “continues to certify educational institutions based on the principles of educating ‘global citizens,’ which raises concerns under Russian law, as it directly contradicts it.”
Following her request, the Prosecutor General’s Office launched an investigation into the country’s IB programs and ultimately declared the organization “undesirable.” Kuznetsova welcomed the move on her Telegram channel, claiming that “IB’s representatives promote non-traditional values based on the ideology of banned extremist organizations and engage in anti-Russian propaganda.”
Kuznetsova’s appeal also included the Council of International Schools (CIS), another accrediting body for international institutions. Several Russian schools, including the British International School and the Economic School in Moscow, as well as the Alabuga International School in Tatarstan, hold CIS certification. So far, the authorities have made no formal announcement regarding CIS’s status.
Kuznetsova currently leads the State Duma’s working group on “traditional values” and is active in the Union of Orthodox Women. In parliament, she’s been a vocal advocate for laws banning “LGBT propaganda,” gender transition, and surrogacy for foreign nationals — all of which have been passed in recent years. She often frames her policy efforts, including the push against IB, as measures to “protect children.” In a 2009 interview with a local Penza radio station, she even cited “telegony,” a discredited theory claiming that a woman’s first sexual partner can influence her future offspring.
According to T-Invariant, the IB ban was supported by lobbying networks tied to far-right media mogul and political activist Konstantin Malofeev. In 2009, Kuznetsova co-founded a charity called Blagovest with Maria Lvova-Belova — now Russia’s children’s rights commissioner and Malofeev’s current wife.
Kuznetsova’s husband, Alexey Kuznetsov, served as a priest at a Moscow-region church affiliated with the St. Basil the Great School, a private Orthodox high school founded by Malofeev. According to Malofeev, Kuznetsov also “ministered” to local kindergartens.
In an interview with his own media outlet Tsargrad TV, Malofeev said his school drew inspiration from elite Western institutions: “We looked at many schools around the world — Eton and other top British schools, Swiss and American ones, institutions based on the Anglo-Saxon tradition. We studied elite private schools from around the globe.”
Tuition at the St. Basil the Great School is about 1 million rubles per year (roughly $10,000), and the school promises to deliver “deep knowledge and high moral ideals” with the goal of producing a new Russian elite that’s “proud of its heritage” and prepared to “serve the nation.”
The sociologist from the Higher School of Economics described the IB ban as a clear win for hardliners. “This is another victory for the conservative lobby in Russia’s education policy,” they said. “They were already exerting pressure before the war, but now they’re setting the agenda.”
Reached by Meduza for comment, the International Baccalaureate responded with a brief statement from a recent press release:
The International Baccalaureate is an educational organisation and is not affiliated with any political body. We regret that this decision may interrupt the education of schools and students, and we affirm our belief that every learner deserves access to rigorous, future-focused education.