Earlier this week, it was reported that Russian Philosopher Svetlana Mesyats was placed under house arrest and the offices and homes of several other employees of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences were searched. What is going on there, and why? In the following guest post, Elizaveta Shcherbakova (Humboldt University of Berlin), who used to work at the Institute of Philosophy alongside Dr. Mesyats, but who has now left Russia, explains. “The danger… is very real,” she