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University lecturer allegedly fired for showing students Navalny’s film on Medvedev’s “secret empire”

Siberian Federal University philosophy and culture lecturer Mikhail Konstantinov was fired for showing Alexei Navalny’s film about Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s “secret empire”, reported publication Prospekt Mira on Wednesday, citing Konstantinov’s correspondence with his students.

According to Konstantinov, one of his students complained about the screening of the Anti-Corruption Foundation’s video. The situation was brought to the attention to university rector Evgeni Vaganov and Konstantinov was fired.

The university confirmed that Konstantinov was no longer employed by the institution, establishing, however, that he had resigned of his own accord, without offering reasons as to why. The university’s press office noted that any dismissal as a result of the screening would be “at the very least strange,” as the film is in the public domain and students can watch it themselves.

The press office refused to comment on Konstantinov’s dismissal, instead insisting that Meduza submit an official request for comments.

Alexei Navalny’s investigation on Medvedev was published on March 2. Since then, the video accompanying the printed material has been watched by 10 million YouTube users.

Officially, Russian authorities did not comment on the investigation, choosing instead to criticize Navalny himself. On March 17, the Communist Duma member Valery Rashkin sent inquiries to the Russia’s Investigative Committee, the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Prosecutor General’s Office demanding to the information in the publication be looked into.

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