The journalist of the TV and radio company, in conflict with his employer, reveals the methods and atmosphere on the TV channel "Russia 1", writes the correspondent of Le Monde in Moscow, Isabelle Mandro.
Dmitry Skorobutov in August 2016 in a night in the premises of VGTRK, the Russian state broadcaster, quarreled with his highly tipsy colleague, who severely beat him, so that he received a concussion of the brain and a displacement of the cervical vertebra. Shortly thereafter, the journalist was dismissed, within a year he applied to the judiciary, and now discloses the methods of his employer, the article says..
Skorobutov worked for 15 years as the editor-in-chief of the Vesti program, which publishes news several times a day on the first television channel Russia 1, and knew his abuser, who repeatedly complained about being in a drunken state, the author of the article notes.. "He could not bear the fact that I was gay, and always let go of me obscene jokes," - says Skorobutov.
Nevertheless, VGTRK did not take sides with him. "Kondrashov is afraid of scandal. He is a public person, "the journalist believes.. "Andrey Kondrashov, director of" Vesti ", is really famous. He was an interlocutor of Vladimir Putin in the documentary "Crimea. Way to the Motherland ", shown in March 2015 on" Russia 1 ", where the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula was justified," writes Mandro.
Skorobutov gets a sheet from his file: "This is how it happens, we get the same thing every day". In this document, as in many others, there appears a list of topics to be discussed, and another list, underlined with a bold line and marked with an exclamation mark: "Do not give" or "ask for advice," describes the correspondent.
"Information meetings were held on Thursdays in the Kremlin. Under the leadership of Gromov (Alexei Gromov - head of the press service of the presidential administration), and the next day we had our weekly meeting, "continues Dmitry Skorobutov. "We were forbidden to be on Facebook, and the one who appeared there, published only photos of seals and flowers," he adds.. "One of my friends wrote a post more or less favorable for Navalny, so he was kicked out after two hours".
Journalists are under control. Their employment contract is extended every year. The salary of the former chief editor, indicated in his contract, seems incredibly low: 9800 rubles per month, that is, 132 euros at the rate of 2016. "Most of us were paid in the form of bonuses," he explained to Le Monde.
Today, Dmitry Skorobutov was without money, he said, he is a victim of threats and lives in fear: "Journalist and gay in Russia - what is my future?".