In Khabarovsk, a university professor was fired because of his words about Putin

The leadership of the Far Eastern Institute of Management – a branch of the Russian Academy of National Economy and State Service (RANChyGS) has offered to resign to Candidate of Sociological Sciences Vitaly Blazhevich.

The reason was his comment on Radio Svoboda, in which he said that residents who supported the former governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Sergei Furgal, refused to trust President Vladimir Putin. Blazhevych was forced to write a statement of resignation of his own free will. He told Sibir.Realii about this.

Blazhevich’s comment concerned the fate of Furgal, which is why he touched on the topic of the attitude of the residents of Khabarovsk Krai to Putin.

“The people of Khabarovsk clearly, quite clearly, also, by the way, under repression, but, nevertheless, declared that they refuse to trust Putin specifically. When Putin refused to trust Furgal, the people of Khabarovsk said loudly, clearly and clearly at one of the largest rallies “From now on, we refuse to trust Putin. This is the most real law that the people have adopted,” Blazhevych said at the time.

The teacher was released for a conversation with Oleg Kulikov, deputy director for organizational issues and digitization. It was his words about Putin that triggered his complaints. One of the arguments was that the RANChyGS was created under the president of Russia. (The decree on the establishment of the university was signed in 2010 by the then president Dmitry Medvedev).

Blazhevych was informed that the information about his comments to Radio Liberty came from the “Regional Management Center”, which is engaged in “collection, analysis and processing of complaints and messages from the population.”

According to Blazhevych, he was threatened with the fact that if this application reaches the police, an administrative case may be opened. In addition to the police, Blazhevych was threatened with dismissal under labor law for immoral behavior. “We are teachers, we have no right to speak ill of the president,” said the deputy director of the university.

“According to their logic, it turns out that having your own opinion is immoral,” Blazhevych noted, adding that during working hours he did not discuss politics with colleagues or students, and there were no complaints about his studies. So, this clause is not from the university, the teacher believes.

• On February 16, the city court of Nizhnevartovsk refused to reinstate the artist Artem Muntyan, who was dismissed from the art school after being detained by FSB officers.
• On April 4, 2022, the administration of the Omsk Clinical Cardiology Dispensary terminated the employment contract with Olga Belova due to the disclosure of a secret protected by law. This happened after her anti-war publications.
• After the arrest of the former governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Sergei Furgal, in the summer of 2020, numerous protest actions were held in support of the politician in Khabarovsk for several months. On February 10, the Moscow Regional Court sentenced Furgal to 22 years in a strict-regime prison, accusing him of organizing an attempted assassination of three business competitors.