The Zhukovsky District Court of the Kaluga Region awarded student Andrei Kotenko, expelled from the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions (SPbGUP), over 1.1 million rubles. According to Important Stories, citing lawyer Artem Klyga, although the student was formally expelled for poor progress, there was a clear political connotation in the decision of the university administration, she pointed to his anti-war posts.
“He kept an active Instagram, published anti-war posts, elders wrote to him to stop posting this. There was also a moment that it was necessary to donate money for patriotic events at the university – he refused, and he was promised problems for this, ”said Klyga.
He added that the amount awarded to the student “increases in real time, because the penalty will accrue until the actual execution of the court decision.”
Andrey Kotenko himself told Important Stories that he began publishing anti-war posts and stories on Instagram immediately after Russia's invasion of Ukraine: close places where I would like to start my career. But he understood that there could be consequences for this.
In March last year, two PhDs in philosophy quit the University of Trade Unions after the university was banned from speaking out against the war in Ukraine. In addition, several students who were detained during the protests were expelled from the university. The head of the security service of St. Petersburg State Unitary Enterprise urged to report on those who conduct anti-war campaigning, and the rector Alexander Zapesotsky threatened students with expulsion for communicating with journalists, remind "Important stories".