Press Release, 30.03.2021

Photo: Yelena Skvortsova / Photo from Yelena Skvortsova’s personal page in the VKontakte social network

Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and Deputy Chairman of Yabloko, called for additional attention to the situation with the expulsion from university of Yelena Skvortsova, a student of the Institute “The Higher School of Journalism and Mass Communications” of St. Petersburg State University. Skvortsova is a journalist in the human rights group Team 29, an association of lawyers and journalists fighting for the Russian citizens’ rights to access and distribute information.

Boris Vishnevsky sent appeals to the rector of the university Nikolai Kropachev and the head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Education and Science Anzor Muzaev. In addition, the Vishnevsly also applied to the Public Prosecutor of St.Petersburg Sergei Litvinenko with a request to check the lawfulness of the expulsion of Yelena Skvortsova from the university.

Boris Vishnevsky noted that the student was expelled allegedly due to failure to pass the “work practice”, but in fact, Yelena was put in such conditions that she simply could not pass it.

The Institute of Journalism unexpectedly refused to credit Yelena Skvortsova for her practice for a year of work in the Team 29 human rights association. Yelena Skvortsova took another internship at the Razvilka media, but she also got a refusal of the university to credit it. The journalist was given only a few days to take another internship which was impossible to organise and take in a couple of days, and then she was simply expelled. Yelena Skvortsova connects her expulsion from St. Petersburg State University with her active civic position and human rights activities.

“Yelena’s classmates and colleagues speak positively about her attitude to learning and her work skills. Yelena’s responsible attitude to the educational process is confirmed by her academic performance throughout the years of study. The Student Council of St. Petersburg State University also considers the expulsion of a student to be unlawful,” Vishnevsky emphasised.

“St. Petersburg State University is the oldest and leading university in the country. The high reputation of the university will be strengthened even more if the injustice is corrected,” Boris Vishnevsky added.