Cartoonist Vitaly Podvitsky was dismissed from MIA Rossiya Segodnya, this was reported in his Vkontakte group. According to him, the real reason for the dismissal is that the holding is changing the agenda in the direction of "softening" and plans to "protect the Western reader." A cartoon was attached to the publication, in which the artist was stabbed in the back with the logo of the news agency Sputnik, which is part of the holding. Recall that in addition to Sputnik, the Rossiya Segodnya media group also includes the state media RIA Novosti and the publication Ukraina.ru, which covers the official Russian position on Ukraine. The holding's CEO is Dmitry Kiselev, and the editor-in-chief is Margarita Simonyan.
“The caricaturist Vitaly Podvitsky has been removed from the team of authors of the Rossiya Segodnya International News Agency, the artist’s caricature gallery has been completely liquidated. Vitaliy Podvitsky, who has been working on the site of the world's operational cartoon since the first day of the founding of state agencies, has been excluded from all projects of RIA Novosti, Sputniknews, Ukraina.RU, Zvezda, etc. the artist managed to publish more than 9,000 anti-Western cartoons in the state media. Many of the works, especially against the fifth column inside the country, had a resonance and significant consequences for the information agenda. Formal reason: poor quality of works and sluggish reader interest. Inside: Change of the agenda towards softening, respect for the Western reader, fatigue from sanctions in the field of information technology.
The history of Russian operational political caricature of the 21st century was cut short in the midst of the information war. All. End".
Podvitsky is known as the author of radical propaganda cartoons that ridicule the "enemies of Russia", which in his works are invariably Western countries and, of course, Ukraine. Podvitsky also ridiculed the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, the protests in Belarus and the doping scandal. It has been published in MIA Rossiya Segodnya since June 2014.
Earlier it was reported about the "suspension of cooperation" of the state channel Russia Today with propagandist Anton Krasovsky after he called for the drowning and burning of Ukrainian children.