The Sverdlovsk Regional Court dismissed an administrative case on "discrediting" the army against journalist and director of the Yekaterinburg Museum of History Igor Pushkarev, It's My City writes , citing the press service of the court. Earlier, Pushkarev was fined 30 thousand rubles because of the picture “No to war!” on the social network Facebook, which he posted on the day the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
The journalist's lawyer could not specify what exactly was the reason for such a decision.
At the same time, the head of It's My City, Dmitry Kozelev, notes that the court decision was made after the conflict between the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Yevgeny Kuyvashev, and the founder of PMC Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin:
“This story has a political background associated with Prigogine. Denunciations against Pushkarev were supported by Prigozhin, demanding that a liberal with an anti-war position not be appointed director of the Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg (Pushkarev is a journalist, we worked together for many years).
At first, Pushkarev was slapped with administrative work on this wave, but then Governor Kuyvashev publicly turned to Prigozhin with a demand not to get involved in the affairs of the region, and now the regional court is canceling the fine. That is, there are no claims against Pushkarev and no formal obstacles to working as a director.”
Earlier, Prigozhin, speaking about the Sverdlovsk region, said that some regional officials "imagined themselves to be the owners of the territories." As an example, he named Yekaterinburg, where there was a "scandalous story with a museum of the history of the city," the director of which was convicted of "discrediting the army."
In response, Kuyvashev stated :
“Lawlessness, Eugene, is what you poke your nose into the regional administration and personnel policy. If every businessman who earns money from school meals tries to run the country, we will not get far. Everyone should mind their own business. You cook cutlets and cook pasta, and we will figure it out in the regions ourselves.”