Change of modality

The dismissal of the editor-in-chief of Kommersant-Vlast magazine Maxim Kovalsky has been cancelled. He leaves, but by agreement of the parties. RIA Novosti reports this with reference to Demyan Kudryavtsev, general director of the Kommersant publishing house. At the same time, Kovalsky may even collaborate with a publishing house. The decision to dismiss was canceled by Kudryavtsev with the consent of the board of directors. Kudryavtsev notes that the parties “remain unconvinced in their assessments of the 49th issue of the magazine.” Let us recall that in this issue, in an article devoted to voting in the parliamentary elections in Russia, held in London, a photograph of a ballot paper was published, the inscription on which invites Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to go in a certain direction.

Kudryavtsev himself, after the decision was made to dismiss Kovalsky, as well as the general director of the Kommersant holding Andrei Ganiev, submitted his resignation. After this, a number of journalists from Kommersant and Gazeta.Ru published an open letter opposing the dismissals. However, the owner of the publishing house, Alisher Usmanov, was firm: in his opinion, the material with the photograph bordered on hooliganism.