Russian high school history teacher is fired after attending June 12 anti-corruption protest

A high school social studies teacher in the Krasnodar region says he was fired after attending an anti-corruption protest on June 12. Alexander Korovainy told the local news site Yuga.ru that police officers came to his school after the demonstration and charged him with violating Russia’s law on public assemblies. A few days later, a court sentenced him to 10 days in jail.

Anna Kravtsova, the school’s principal, told reporters that Korovainy’s dismissal is unrelated to his political activism, explaining that he was only a substitute teacher. “The school year has ended, and so, accordingly, has our contract with him,” she said.

Korovainy calls the decision “a very strange coincidence,” saying police officers were the first to tell him that he’d lost his job, and only later did the school’s administrators actually inform him of the news.

Organizers for the June 12 anti-corruption protest in Yeysk, where Korovainy lives, did not obtain a permit for the demonstration, despite three attempts to get local officials’ permission.

In addition to teaching social studies, Alexander Korovainy also heads the local branch of Yabloko, a liberal political party. Korovainy says students from his school also attended the protest.