Ultranationalist Ideologues Now Teach History in Russia’s Universities

A sanctioned Russian billionaire who fiercely spreads propaganda and helped bankroll Russia’s war in Ukraine is now set to teach history at Moscow State University (MSU). 

Konstantin Malofeev, an ultranationalist oligarch and longtime Kremlin ally, has long been a lightning rod for controversy. His extreme views once barred him from election to the Federation Council, leadership roles in political parties, and even teaching positions at universities.

Yet in recent years, Malofeev has “genuinely strengthened his position” within Russia. Now, he is poised to bring his hardline ideology directly into the classroom. The MSU has historically educated a significant number of Russia’s political elite, and now Malofeev seeks to shape the views of a new generation of Russian elites.

Who is Konstantin Malofeev?

Konstantin Malofeev, dubbed the “Orthodox Oligarch,” is a media owner, a staunch supporter of Vladimir Putin, and has historically financed Russia’s war in Ukraine. In 2024, he married Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, who, along with Putin, has an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for the war crime of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.

Malofeev is best known as the founder of Tsargrad TV, a channel rooted in Russian Orthodox identity, pro-monarchist ideology, and support for the Russian state, while promoting propaganda about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He also heads the Double-Headed Eagle Society, a pro-monarchist, right-wing political group, and has held stakes in several sanctioned businesses, moving money through offshore companies. In one case, he shuffled tens of millions of dollars between European shell companies despite sanctions.

In September 2025, Malofeev and Tsargrad TV launched a neo-nationalist group called the International Sovereigntist League (ISL) Paladins, whose leaders publish violent and racist rhetoric while pledging to fight what they describe as “satanic, misanthropic, transhumanist, LGBTQ propaganda.”

Malofeev’s support for the far-right goes back even further. In 2019, leaked emails showed him funding radical nationalist movements across Europe and reportedly mediating a $12 million loan from Russian banks to Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party .

Unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children

Malofeev and Lvova-Belova run a festival and pseudo-charity called “Happy Childhood”, which, according to Tsargrad TV, “helps children from boarding schools in the Donetsk People’s Republic , the Luhansk People’s Republic , and Zaporizhzhia region”—Ukrainian children who have been abducted to Russia.

Helping the children of Donbas and Novorossiya is not just our duty, but the ultimate test of being a Russian.

Konstantin Malofeev

Under the project, Malofeev has visited orphanages in Russian-occupied Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, supporting Lvova-Belova in arranging adoptions of Ukrainian children in Russia.

Financing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

The Ukrainian Government opened a criminal investigation into his links to, and financial support for, Russian-backed forces in Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions in 2014, and was sanctioned by the US and the EU for “acting in support of the destabilisation of Eastern Ukraine”.

Malofeev reportedly gave Russian soldiers a bonus of 50,000 rubles ($650) per km of Ukrainian territory captured. Since 2019, Bulgaria has banned him for a decade over alleged espionage, and charged him with accepting payments to transfer Bulgarian state secrets to Russian organizations, including the Double-Headed Eagle Society and the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies.

He has organized far-right groups while backing Igor Girkin, a former FSB officer and key figure in Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea and its invasion of Ukraine’s east. Girkin was later convicted in absentia in the Netherlands for murder in connection with the 2014 downing of MH17, which killed 298 civilians.

Malofeev is also the former employer of Alexander Borodai, the former so-called “Prime Minister” of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, who is responsible for killings, torture, terrorist attacks, and other human rights violations in occupied Ukrainian territories.

Ultimately, Malofeev remains one of Russia’s most controversial businessmen. His influence spans media, far-right politics, and propaganda, and his profile continues to grow in Russia and abroad.

The classroom as a Kremlin megaphone

Malofeev’s course “The History of Empire” has appeared in the course calendar at Moscow State University (MSU). While details of the syllabus remain unclear, Malofeev has long promoted Russia as an empire.

Russia cannot but be an Empire, since it is the direct heir of Rome, the Katechon, in the words of the Apostle Paul, who restrains the whole world from the triumph of evil. And therefore, the Russian ideology that defines Russia's future can only be Imperial.

Konstantin Malofeev

Malofeev positions himself as a restorer of the “lofty and sacred concept of Empire,” with Russia at its centre. In a 2025 blog titled “Russia’s Imperial Destiny Returns,” he wrote: “We are the Empire. It is in our blood, in our Russian language, in our classical culture, in our Orthodox Church. No one but us will restore the former glory of the Empire.”

He’s the President of the Katehon think tank, which claims to analyze geopolitics and global events. Among its contributors is Alexander Dugin, the neo-Eurasianist ideologue and Malofeev ally.

The real borders between Russia and anti-Russia ran not across the land but through hearts. Patriots of our great, united Fatherland, of the USSR, of the Russian Empire, of the Russian World, in both Moscow and Kiev  became spiritual Russia, while traitors and liberals, in both Moscow and Kiev, became Ukraine.

Konstantin Malofeev

Malofeev’s books in the Empire series outline a civilizational theory of history where Russia is destined to embody imperial values. In his view, a true Empire is led by a sovereign accountable only to God, prioritizes communal duty over comfort, and asserts that the Russian state—through the Orthodox Church, the army, and family—carries an imperial spirit.

An anonymous MSU faculty member was blunt about Malofeev’s upcoming course.

My alma mater isn’t just scraping the bottom of the barrel; it’s carrying out industrial excavations.

Anonymous MSU Employee

Until recently, the Kremlin privately discouraged MSU professors from collaborating with Malofeev. Yet over the last two years, his ideas have begun appearing in official ideological discourse. The concept of Russia as a “particular, integrative type of empire” is now part of the Foundations of Russian Statehood curriculum, mandatory for first-year students since 2023.

While it is not yet clear what his lectures will specifically include, by framing Russia as an “empire” and portraying the West as an “anti‑empire,” they risk normalising propaganda, distorting history, and influencing students with a politically motivated worldview. 

Combined with his media reach and financial networks, this academic platform could serve as a tool to spread pro-Kremlin ideology under the guise of scholarship, potentially shaping future elites in line with his agenda.

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