Irkutsk and the Laboratory for Glaciology and Environmental Geophysics in Grenoble, France. Lake Vostok is one of the world's most closely watched scientific projects, and the expertise of the Russian drillers, directed by Professor Vasiliev, is recognised. Controversies Vladimir Litvinenko, who has been rector since 1994 and has close links to Vladimir Putin, who defended his doctoral thesis at the institute in 1996. Litvinenko oversaw Putin's work, which is alleged to include significant amounts of plagiarism and is speculated perhaps to have not even been written by Putin (i.e. that he paid somebody to write it for him). Litvinenko has been criticised for not spotting plagiarism. Notable alumni Alumni The long list of University alumni includes outstanding specialists, who discovered hundreds of open fields and projected productions. Such are world-famous geologists Alexander Karpinsky, Vladimir Obruchev, Dmitry Nalivkin, the founder of the oil doctrine Ivan Gubkin, and many others. References External links Saint Petersburg Mining University Information Agency 1773 establishments in the Russian Empire Andrey Voronikhin buildings Educational institutions established in 1773 Universities and colleges in the Soviet Union National research universities in Russia