In early June 2025, the Russian Psychological Society is organizing an international online conference titled „Child in a Digital World.” On the conference website, the section listing sponsors includes the official logo of UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is important to note that the use of the UNESCO logo is only permitted with the organization’s written consent.
Conference website https://digitalchildhood.org/
A copy of the website by Internet Archives, May 3, 2025: https://web.archive.org/web/20250503093209/https://digitalchildhood.org/
The Communications Department at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris has officially confirmed that UNESCO is not involved in organizing this conference and has not granted permission for the use of its logo.
The Lithuanian Psychological Association (LPA) has identified other instances in which the Russian Psychological Society and its leadership have disseminated false or misleading information.
For example, Yury Zinchenko – President of the Russian Psychological Society and Dean of the Faculty of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University – claims on his personal profile on the university’s website to be a member of the Presidium of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) and a member of the Executive Committee of the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA). However, these claims do not reflect the truth.
IUPsyS has no Presidium in its organizational structure – instead, it is governed by an Executive Committee, and Yury Zinchenko has never been elected as a member of it. EFPA was previously governed by an Executive Council, which was recently replaced by a Board of Directors. Yury Zinchenko has never been elected to either the former Executive Council or the current Board of Directors of EFPA.
This false information is still publicly available on the official website of the Faculty of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University:
https://psy-msu.ru/people/psychologist/3617/
A copy of the website by Internet Archive, May 4, 2025: https://web.archive.org/web/20250504115622/https://psy-msu.ru/people/psychologist/3617/ )
The false information was also previously published on the website of the Russian Psychological Society, but after the Lithuanian Psychological Association submitted a formal request to IUPsyS to expel the Russian Psychological Society from the organization, the information was removed. Nevertheless, an archived version of the page containing this false information is available via the Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240623055844/http:/psyrus.ru/psychologists/rpopsych/psychologist/260/
In July 2024, the Lithuanian Psychological Association formally submitted a request to the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) to expel the Russian Psychological Society from the organization, which unites more than 90 national psychological associations worldwide. The Estonian Union of Psychological and Dutch Psychological Association supported the inclusion of this issue on the agenda of the General Assembly by submitting their own letters.
In its request, the Lithuanian Psychological Association presented documented evidence that the leadership of the Russian Psychological Society supports the war by the Russian Federation against Ukraine. In October of 2023, the Presidium of the Russian Psychological Society decided to establish a regional branch of the Society in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Additionally, Sergei Shoigu – former Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation and currently Secretary of Russia’s Security Council – has been declared an honorary member of the Russian Psychological Society. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Shoigu for alleged war crimes committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Eduard Galazhinsky and Igor Gaidamashko, who became vice-presidents of the Russian Psychological Society in the autumn of 2022, had signed a letter by Russian university rectors in March of the same year expressing support for the war against Ukraine.
Although the request to expel the Russian Psychological Society was included on the agenda of the IUPsyS General Assembly held in July 2024 in Prague, its discussion was not permitted. This violated the organization’s own procedures, which state that expulsion matters must be listed as the first item on the agenda, and voting results must take immediate effect.
The Lithuanian Psychological Association has also been informed that the National Psychological Association of Ukraine submitted a request to IUPsyS to expel the Russian Psychological Society in March 2022. However, this request was not included on the agenda of that year’s General Assembly, and IUPsyS members were not informed about it.
An extraordinary General Assembly of the International Union of Psychological Science was held on January 31, 2025, convened in response to the request submitted by the Lithuanian Psychological Association. However, the LPA’s request to expel the Russian Psychological Society was not included on the agenda of the extraordinary General Assembly, once again preventing the Assembly from addressing the issue.
