Seminar on low-dimensional mathematics June 17, 2005 S.Duzhin Detecting link orientation by finite type invariants. This talk is based on a joint work with my student M.Karev. It is well known that classical knot polynomials and quantum invariants in general take equal values on a knot and its inverse. The class of Vassiliev invariants is strictly wider, and the problem whether they can be used to tell a knot from its inverse is open and seemingly difficult. In this talk, we discuss the corresponding problem for links with more than 1 component. We prove the existence of a degree 7 Vassiliev invariant of long (or string) two-component links which is not preserved under the simultaneous change of orientation of both components. The non-invertibility of this invariant can be detected by the standard weight system with values in the tensor square of the universal enveloping algebra for $\gl(n)$. --- http://www.pdmi.ras.ru/~duzhin