Deputy Defeckan of the Journalism faculty of MGIMO and General of the SVR Yuri Kobaladze was fired after he gave a lecture with the participation of Ivan Urgant

The deputy dean of the faculty of international journalism MGIMO Yuri Kobaladze told students about dismissal after he held a meeting for them with the participation of Ivan Urgant and the video from the event got into the network, the telegram channels “Caution, Moscow” and “Abgo” reported.

Students believe that Kobaladze forced to quit after a lecture with Urgant. “We remain in the deepest misunderstanding how to fire a person for calling Ivan Urgant. The Social Networking subject is aimed at establishing "social ties", so Yuri Kobaladze brought us pairs of various famous and interesting people, - said one of the students of the journalism factory. “If such an experienced teacher, who worked for nine years at the university, was fired after a meeting with Urgant, then what will happen to us.”

Kobaladze himself, Major General of the SVR in retired and the ex-head of the TASS, refused to comment. His name disappeared from the list of teachers of MGIMO, and on the site of the university it now appears that he held the post of deputy deputy and professor of the Department of International Journalism from 2014 to 2023. “The dean and rector learned about the creative meeting with the comedian from the Internet and were shocked. This has nothing to do with journalism or teaching, ”the Prochrevsky edition of RT quotes the words of the source in MGIMO.

Students say that the leadership of the university demanded from Kobaladze to hold meetings with Z- “military commissars” and banned a lecture with the participation of journalist and translator Alena Doletskaya.

Ivan Urgant opposed the war in Ukraine from the very beginning of the invasion, and his evening show stopped going out on Channel One since February 25, 2022. Urgant commented on the situation with Kobaladze as follows: "Ah, vaudeville, vaudeville ..."