2018July 29Saint Petersburg was chosen as the next ICM venue at the General Assembly in São Paulo.
SeptemberThe boycott was initiated in Warsaw by Piotr Achinger, Marcin Kotowski, Michał Kotowski and Masha Vlasenko. The domain was registered and the preliminary web page created. Collection of signatures started.
November 8Ami Radunskaya, President of the Association for Women in Mathematics, sent a letter to the ICM Organizing Committee, asking them to rethink their choice of St Petersburg, Russia, an unsafe location for the LGBTQ.
2019March 29We sent a letter to the members of the IMU Executive Committee demanding them to act in support of two students, Azat Miftakhov and Pavlo Hryb, arrested in Russia on political grounds.
The reponse of the IMU President, Professor Kenig, and the following correspondence are posted here.
April 29Professor Daya Reddy, President of the International Science Council and Chair of the Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science, responded to the letter of the IMU President regarding Azat Miftakhov and Pavlo Hryb.
Unfortunately, the ISC decided to take no action as the arrests are not directly related to their science discipline nor their pursuit of their scientific research. Our response to Professor Daya Reddy, insisting that an action is needed as there were reported tortures against the students, and further correspondence with the ISC.
Quoting the ISC: In this case, we believe that the IMU is the most appropriate body to take any further direct action.
September 7Pavlo Hryb and Oleh Sentsov, who is mentioned in our Statement of Purpose, were released and deported to Ukraine along with 33 other political prisoners. More than 80 political prisoners of Ukrainian nationality remain in custody in the Russian Federation. The majority of them are Crimean Tatar activists.
2020October 16Scientific American published an opinion article "When Scientists Become Political Dissenters" by Ahmed Abbes, Michel Broué, Chandler Davis, Adrien Deloro, Ivar Ekeland, Michael Harris and Masha Vlasenko. The article disusses three cases of scientists detained on political grounds, one of them being Azat Miftakhov. Azat is now in jail for almost two years.
November 14The Mathematical Society of France issued a statement on Miftakhov's case.
2021January 447 mathematicians sent a letter concerning the case of Azat Miftakhov to the members of the Executive Organizing Committee and Local Organizing Committee of the International Congress of Mathematicians that will be held in Saint-Petersburg in 2022:
"Freedom is one of the highest values for us as scientists. Attending the congress while our colleague Azat Miftakhov is arbitrarily detained will pose a serious dilemma for us and for the entire mathematical community. We kindly ask you to take an active position on this case and to communicate with the state authorities to free Azat."
January 5Jill Pipher, the president of the American Mathematical Society, wrote a letter to the Golovinsky court in Moscow, where the verdict to Azat Miftakhov should be soon announced.
January 18The Golovinsky Court in Moscow sentences Azat Miftakhov to 6 years in prison with serving a sentence in a general regime colony. The international mathematical community is appalled and horrified by the verdict. Several mathematicians made a statement:
... we have come to believe that the charges against him are a pure invention of the Russian authorities.
We will continue to monitor Azat Miftakhov's case and provide our support until he is released and his rights are fully restored. We hold the Russian authorities directly responsible for the safety and physical and moral integrity of our colleague.
March 4Azat Miftakhov was named an honorary student of Paris-Saclay University.