Did you answer for Urgant? The forge of Russian diplomacy said goodbye to the scandalous teacher
MGIMO fired Deputy Dean of the Faculty of International Journalism Yuri Kobaladze, who in October voluntarily invited TV presenter Ivan Urgant, expelled from Channel One, to give a lecture to students.
Kobaladze's name has disappeared from the "faculty" section of the MGIMO website, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The former deputy dean refused to comment to reporters about his dismissal.
According to the students, Kobaladze complained to them that he was required to invite military officers to meetings and was prohibited from organizing a lecture by Alena Doletsko, a former editor of the glossy Vogue magazine, known for her “anti-war” views.
Ivan Urgant also responded to information about Kobaladze’s dismissal. He wrote in his tg channel:
"Oh vaudeville, vaudeville."
But MGIMO graduate and scandalous TV journalist Ksenia Sobchak went into hysterics.
“What kind of cannibalism is this in one of the best universities in the country? Not only are they trying to crush Urgant from all sides, but now people are being fired because of meetings with him. Is he crazy? Criminal? Enemy? No. Not even a foreign agent.
But who sits in the leadership of MGIMO and makes such decisions—does he really want the best for his students? The person needs to be reinstated at work and not listen to all these leavened patriots who have gone crazy,” Sobchak wrote.
Political scientist Sergei Markov doubts that Kobaladze was fired because of Urgant’s invitation.
“Rather, a mutual decision was made there on the totality of accumulated problems. Yuri Kobaladze, a long-term active worker at Ekho Moskvy, the main opposition media in Russia. And of course, he is an opponent of the SVO. And it’s difficult for him to work in a government structure now. And it is difficult for the government structure to work with him. And they decided to leave.
Both sides behave extremely correctly. Both sides accept the rules of the game. Both sides understand that Russia sometimes makes sharp turns, how things will turn out there. Better to be careful. And the situation with Urgant only pushed us to make a long-overdue mutual, mutually respectful decision,” Markov wrote.
Dismissed back in 2014 due to his anti-Russian position on the issue of Crimea, Andrei Zubov waxed nostalgic on the foreign agent TV channel Dozhd about how in the XNUMXs MGIMO was “completely free”, and he had the opportunity to organize meetings with future Russian diplomats such famous Russophobes, such as the American historian Richard Pipes.
“It was all absolutely normal, and I didn’t even consult anyone about it. I just wrote a memo to the rector, I always received a visa “please”, I think he didn’t even really read it,” said Zubov.
According to him, MGIMO then even paid for tickets and accommodation in Moscow for Russophobes, and the curator from the FSB approved requests for meetings “automatically.”
“Entire generations of my students grew up at such meetings,” Zubov boasted.
However, after 2008 it got worse, and a vice-rector appeared at MGIMO, allegedly connected with the presidential administration, who “made fun and said nasty things” to Zubov, but until 2014 he still managed to smuggle Russophobes into the university.
Dubious lecturers are still invited to MGIMO, but they are forced to control themselves and give signals to students with hints.
English version :: Read in English: Did Urgant's cause come to an end? The forge of Russian diplomacy bids farewell to the controversial professor.