The EU students still studying in Russia

Despite the war, some students from countries on Moscow's ‘unfriendly’ list continue to accept its offer of a free education. What's the draw?

According to Russian Higher Education Ministry data, nearly 5,000 students from states on Moscow’s official “unfriendly countries” list were studying in Russian universities as of 2025. Two of the three countries with the most students were Latvia and Estonia, while other EU member states followed closely. With the invasion of Ukraine still raging, a repressive political climate, and overlapping domestic crises, why would EU students go to Russia for a degree? Independent journalist Beatrice Learmouth reports.

In Narva, an Estonian town where 97% of the population speak Russian, the border with Russia is little more than a river you could swim across. Most young people there have the same ambitions as anywhere else: to go to university, build a career and make something of themselves. But state-funded university places can be hard to come by in Estonia, harder still if Estonian is your second language.

Russia, however, has another offer. Each year, Russian universities make thousands of free university places available to foreign students, including those from countries that Moscow has designated as “unfriendly” after they sanctioned it over the invasion of Ukraine. For some young people in Narva, where Russia has always felt much closer to home than Brussels, it is an offer too good to pass up.

Elizaveta, a mother from Narva whose name was changed to protect her anonymity, saw off her youngest daughter to begin a degree at Saint Petersburg State University on a full scholarship last year. Whilst she had her reservations about the move, she thinks it will better equip her to succeed in her career than staying in Estonia would. After all, she studied in Russia herself.

“Wherever you study, you must choose somewhere that gives you the knowledge your profession demands,” she told Novaya Gazeta Europe. “You cannot be a bad psychologist — that is a crime. You cannot be a bad teacher, a bad surgeon. You need to find places where you will be taught properly.”

The case of Elizaveta’s daughter is not unique. New figures released by URA.RU, a Kremlin-backed media site, suggest nearly 5,000 students from so-called “unfriendly countries”, which include the US, Germany and the Baltics, are still choosing to study in Russia. In Estonia, that number increased from 363 in 2024 to 380 in 2025. Elizaveta herself said several other students in her daughter’s year were also opting to study in Russia.

This is not happening by accident. Russian embassies across Europe are making a concerted effort to draw students in with the offer of free education. Cultural centres called “Russian Houses” in cities from Bratislava to Sofia actively advertise the programme and offer mentorship to prospective applicants.

To help her daughter, Elizaveta, like hundreds of other Estonians looking to take advantage of the free scholarship programme, joined a Telegram group called “I Study in Russia”. “Mentors” in the group help students with paperwork, visas and applications to universities across the border. Interest continues to be high, with the group currently having 669 members, despite worsening relations between the two countries.

In 2023, Estonia’s Internal Security Service (ISS) warned that students studying in Russia risked being approached for recruitment to Russian intelligence. It continues to actively warn citizens against making the move.

“There are a number of situations where people [have contacted] the police themselves to say that they were approached and the contact was suspicious," ISS analyst Jürgen Klemm told Estonian public broadcaster ERR at the time.

A teacher at a local school, Elizaveta speaks scathingly about her own country’s public education system, calling it “a sham”. She has far more faith in the education provided on the other side of the river: “Education there [in Russia] has always been more thorough. That has to be acknowledged.”

Despite Elizaveta’s unwavering support for the Russian higher education system, Estonian universities are ranked highly internationally, in some cases ahead of their Russian counterparts. The University of Tartu was ranked 367th in the QS World University Rankings 2027, ahead of St. Petersburg State University, the one Elizaveta’s daughter is attending, at 390th.

However, this positive view of Russian education has deep roots. Soviet education was defined by rigour and discipline, a reputation that has outlasted the USSR, and that Ivan Klyszcz, a research fellow at the International Centre for Defence and Security in Tallinn, says Western popular culture has done much to keep alive.

“[Popular culture] does portray Soviet and Russian education as being very strict, very thorough, so it’s kind of a cultural touchstone at this point,” he says. “It is something that Russia doesn’t really need to inflate too much for it to resonate with people.”

Leo, a Spanish citizen whose name has been changed to protect his anonymity, had never set foot in Russia before he decided to study there. Despite having a Russian mother, he grew up with very little knowledge of the culture and its language. He wanted to connect with the country by attending university there.

“Our family were migrants from Spain, so I never lived close to my [extended] family,” he told Novaya Gazeta Europe. “I thought it would be interesting to finally live in the same country [as them].”

But the familial connection was not the only pull. Leo’s university in Russia also provided him with a scholarship, something he knew would be harder to obtain elsewhere.

“If they wouldn’t have offered a scholarship, I wouldn’t have gone,” he says. “I was looking at the UK, but as an EU citizen it is hard to justify the price of education [there].”

It is a calculation Russia is counting on. When advertising its exchange programmes to foreign students, it focuses heavily on financial support. But incentives run deeper than simple generosity.

When looking at the use of education as an instrument of soft power in Russia, Klyszcz says it is essential to look at the Soviet Union and how they used exchange programmes to promote the image of the state and its foreign policy, as policies now reflect these.

“Russia today has, in a way, retold that,” he says.

But the ambition, he adds, has shifted. Whilst the Soviet Union was much intent on convincing those outside of its borders of communist ideals, now, “it’s more about the exposure to Russian points of view and Russian talking points.”

A reader of Novaya Gazeta Europe, Leo says his two years in Russia have not changed his outlook on the world so far. Whilst he acknowledges the strangeness of his situation, noting the lack of European students at his university, he says daily life still feels surprisingly normal.

But he is very much exposed to the other point of view. When a new package of sanctions comes out, he finds himself considering the other side of the argument more closely, such as the belief there will still be enough oil to prop up the economy and that the impact of sanctions will not be as severe as the West believes.

“I feel I might be more able to view both sides than somebody who hasn't taken both sides of the story into account,” he says.

That, perhaps, is exactly what the Kremlin is counting on.