Ex-teacher sues Proekt over sexual harassment investigation

A former teacher who was fired from Moscow State University’s elite Kolmogorov Boarding School has filed a defamation suit against the investigative outlet Proekt and journalist Yulia Lukyanova.

As reported by MBX Media, Moscow’s Nikulinsky District Court registered the lawsuit on June 21. The court materials show that the ex-teacher, Sergey Sergeev, filed the defamation claim the day after Proekt published an investigative report alleging that he had been sexually harassing his underage students for more than 20 years.

Proekt published its investigation into the two decades of sexual misconduct at the elite boarding school on June 17. Several former students of Sergey Sergeev told Proket that they had been subjected to sexual harassment; the allegations included incidents dating as far back as 1995. Interviewees told Proekt that Sergeev would take schoolchildren on “hikes,” where he would force boys to be photographed naked and carry out “examinations” on naked teenagers, touching their genitals. After the investigation came out, Proekt reported that Sergeev had been fired from school.

Sergeev’s colleague Ivan Bayazitov, a lab assistant in the Physics Department, confirmed to MBX Media that the teacher had filed a lawsuit, however, he didn’t specify the demands included in the claim.

MBX Media