Translated material
Slapped students on the butt and invited them to spend the night
Former and current students of the Yekaterinburg theater university accuse their teacher Alexander Blinov of harassment. It turned out that many witnessed his inappropriate behavior and once he even had to quit because of this, but he soon returned to the university. "Kosa" released a video where former students recall harassment and manipulation by Blinov - you can watch it at the link . "Cold" tells what is known about this story.
Students at a Russian university ask to be protected from their teacher 
In many stories the name of the same teacher was repeated - Alexander Blinov. Stories surfaced about how he took female students to restaurants, wrote to them at night and invited them to spend the night with him.
It turned out that this has been happening for many years. Once at the university there was even a group of students who rebelled against Blinov - they were nicknamed “11 rebels.” Their confrontation resembled a strange psychological game - and it turned out that it was still not over.
Restaurants and butt spankings
All “11 rebels” entered the EGTI in 2020. The master of the course was Alexander Blinov, and his mother, Azalia Blinova, an experienced specialist in stage speech, also taught there.
Ksenia (the names of the students are not mentioned in the “Braids” video) - one of the former students - says : “At first everything was fine. We entered, and in front of us sits a stately man, well dressed, speaking beautifully, telling tales about our bright, beautiful future. And nothing foreshadowed trouble.”
According to her, the course was young - most entered it at the age of 17-18 and for the first time found themselves in a large city and away from their home. At first, many were delighted with the teacher, who hinted that he had great connections and could provide students with cooperation with large platforms like Netflix .
“For the first three months, we believed that we had the most brilliant master,” says Andrey, Ksenia’s classmate. “You can’t even imagine how lucky we are, what a genius we ended up with.” Guys from other courses told us: “Be careful, San Sanych is such a person...” But we didn’t believe it.”
According to Andrey, he first began to question Blinov’s ideas and methods when he invited freshmen to star in an online casino advertisement. “Girls in miniskirts and tank tops dance with money around a guy who sits in the center in a chair,” recalls Andrey. — At the back is an advertisement for an online casino. San Sanych is in charge of it all.”
According to former students, the project was presented as “study work.” They didn't pay any money for it - although they say they later saw the video on the Internet. In addition, Kosa’s interlocutors are not sure that all the participants were adults, although now, six years later, they cannot remember for sure.
However, according to Ksenia, after the casino was advertised, other oddities appeared - and over time they only became more numerous. For example, Blinov began to monitor the appearance of female students.
“You must lose weight” “Everyone was told in an orderly tone: you must lose weight,” she recalls. “Alexander Alexandrovich definitely needed models that he could “sell.”
Ksenia herself, according to her, had just gained weight due to stress and health problems - and because of this she faced humiliation.
“He looked at me and said: “I won’t pay attention to you, you don’t even have to look at me.” This was said with such disgust,” recalls the former student.
However, according to her, she later realized that she was lucky that the master chose to ignore her. There were girls to whom he, on the contrary, paid a lot of attention - so much so that they did not know where to get away from him.
“I saw these slaps on the butt. I saw how he passes and eats girls with his eyes, how he takes girls to other offices and communicates with them,” says Ksenia.
At the same time, according to former students, talk about Blinov’s inappropriate behavior has been circulating for years. Kosa’s interlocutors say that the teacher invited girls to restaurants or to his home for an overnight stay - they didn’t know exactly what happened there.
There was also a story that scared many. Students believed that the teacher was using illegal substances, often with students. There was a rumor that one day he brought a certain girl to the institute building - and then she was found naked and unconscious on the department.
Many people associated with EGTI tell this story, but there is no evidence. Vladimir Babenko, a former teacher and one of the founders of EGTI, who was suddenly fired several years ago - unfairly, according to students, wrote about her on his social networks.
He said that he learned about the naked student from the guards and tried to figure out what happened himself - and it was because of this that he was fired from the institute.
They later tried to find the alleged victim herself on social networks, but she never responded, like other witnesses. Therefore, no reliable evidence of this story has emerged.
The message that made everything break
Students of 2020 say : Blinov gradually singled out girls in the course to whom he paid increased attention. Among them was a student named Maria - like many, she moved from another city and lived in a dormitory.
“He adored her and in crafts classes he would say, “Just look at her face.” He deified her in our eyes,” recalls Ksenia. “I don’t know how pedagogical this is.” She was involved in horse riding, and he took her to the stables and took her shopping.”
“I tried to be my support, the adult I was missing” This is how Maria herself recalls it:
“I was 18 years old, I had just moved to another city, my parents were not nearby. It was a shock for me, at first I went home every two weeks, it was very difficult for me. And, it seems, I told him about this at admission - they say, I’m afraid that it will be a little difficult, but I can handle it. And he found something to cling to. Tried to be my support, the adult I was missing.”
Maria says that the teacher took her to a cafe and even helped her pay for the necessary treatment. According to her, she perceived him partly as a fatherly figure and thought that he sincerely worried about her - especially since he himself has an adult daughter.
“I was only annoyed by his rather persistent offers to drink,” she adds. - And he didn’t drink himself. But every time at the beginning of the meeting he said: “To make you more fun, come on, have a drink.”
According to Maria, she refused every time - at the age of 18, she felt uncomfortable drinking in front of an adult teacher who was already over 50.
“To make you feel more fun, go ahead and have a drink.” She says that over time, Blinov’s attention began to seem intrusive and frightening to her.
“There was a case when he put a projector on the wall and started showing everyone my photographs taken during my studies,” Maria recalls. “He said: “Look how beautiful she is, you all just don’t even stand next to her.” I saw the girls crying, they were very upset.”
In addition, the teacher began writing and calling her at night, asking her to leave the dorm room to talk. “He found different reasons: to discuss a sketch or a series, or he was just bored and lonely,” she says. “And I had to always be in touch, because God forbid his mood deteriorates.”
By that time, a small group of students began to form on the course, dissatisfied with the master’s behavior. Maria says that she began to communicate more often with the “rebels” and the further she went, the more she realized that in communicating with her Blinov was crossing boundaries.
“He could just walk in on a couple and say: “I’m picking her up now, we’ll go with her for coffee at a restaurant,” she gives an example. - He did this in front of everyone, in front of the teacher. And I had to get up and go. It wasn't fun, it was weird."
“Climb out through the dorm window” According to Maria, for a long time she was afraid to clearly say “no” to Blinov. But then the decisive moment came.
“He wrote, ‘Come to me,’” she recalls. — It was about two in the morning. Everything inside me broke. I go up to the girls, show the message and say: “Well, that’s it, we’ve arrived.” I answer him: “Why, no.” And he told me: “Climb out through the dorm window.”
“He wrote to my friends,” says Andrey. “Here is a girl sitting next to me in the evening, and a message comes from him, saying, what are you doing, come to me.” Under the pretext of cleaning.”
Andrey explains: Blinov often invited female students to his home to clean and paid them several hundred rubles for it. He recalls a story that scared him:
“We got together with our classmates to talk, and one girl started crying very hard. We asked what happened, and she told how she came to Sanych to clean up. He gave her some home clothes and she went to the toilet to change. And at the moment when she was in a T-shirt and underwear, the door opens, San Sanych appears, looks at her and says: “Well, why are you stopping, continue.” I didn’t want to know what happened next, and she didn’t talk about it.”
“I arrived at the hostel all in tears” Ksenia also recalls how a friend from the course came running to her late at night and said that Blinov called her home because he “urgently needs to discuss the project.”
“In the end, she went,” says Ksenia. “I don’t know the details, but this girl has character, I’m sure nothing like that happened.” But she arrived at the hostel in tears, because she had been sitting there for several hours and was afraid.”
Probably, there were also conversations about the master’s inappropriate behavior among teachers. At least, Ksenia says that they approached the students and said: “Be careful. Tell me if something happens."
As Kosa’s interlocutors say, at some point Azalia Blinova fell ill and they were left virtually alone with Alexander Blinov. By that time, his behavior already frightened them greatly. For example, former students say that he often seemed drunk to them.
“There were situations when he left the audience and returned in a completely different mood,” says Andrey. — They constantly talked about what he was using in the next audience. It happened that he left with classmates close to him.”
One day, as students say, the master brought an air pistol to class and began shooting at targets with it, ostensibly for training purposes.
Media scandal and dismissal
Not all students thought that what was happening was abnormal. The course was divided into two parts. “11 rebels” tried to defend their rights and complained to the rector, while the rest took Blinov’s side.
“We are dangerous, you need to distance yourself from us” As a result, a boycott was declared on the “conspirators”, and they were not allowed to attend classes, despite the fact that they were threatened with expulsion for “absenteeism.”
“I remember how I came to the workshop, and 11 people were not allowed in,” says Ksenia. “The door was simply closed in front of us.” And there was a conversation about us with the rest of the course, saying that we are dangerous people, they need to distance themselves from us.”
According to Andrei, after this, classmates stopped letting the “rebels” into their dorm rooms, so eight people moved into one room and spent the night there all together.
As for Maria, the girl whom Blinov singled out among the students, she says that for some time he tried to hold conversations with her and convince her that the “rebels” were manipulating her. “Kosa” said that the journalists have an audio recording where Blinov asks her: “Why are they squeezing you all the time?” and hints that someone “seduced” her. Maria replies that she is fine.
She says that over time she too fell out of favor. The situation escalated, and some students were expelled from the course for poor performance and absences. Then they decided to go to the journalists and tell them everything.
“You are a mediocre girl” In 2021, the Uralinformburo agency published a scandalous publication entitled “Sex play for the Russian Ministry of Culture.” It described the entire history of the conflict on the course and provided comments from students and graduates of previous years.
One of the heroines of the material spoke about Blinov: “At some point it began to cross the boundaries, he invited me home. I reacted very sharply to this, clearly imagining where everything was going. Having received a refusal, on the same day he began to say: “Why did I even take you? You are a mediocre girl, you are of no use.”
Another recalled : “He hugged and kissed another girl in front of me, repeating: well, well, don’t resist, well, why are you, why are you offended. And she stayed overnight with him more than once.”
After the material was published, journalists contacted the Ministry of Culture and the Investigative Committee with screenshots of the correspondence. And soon the rector of EGTI announced that Blinov had resigned. As for the inspection by the Investigative Committee, former students say: they were called and questioned, but they never learned about any results.
Probably, the investigation stalled because there was no evidence of physical violence on the part of the teacher. When it comes to harassment and psychological manipulation, it can be very difficult to prove.
Be that as it may, then - in 2021 - it seemed to students that the story was over. Blinov resigned. Some of the “11 rebels” went on academic leave and then completed their studies in another course. Some were expelled and entered other universities.
They heard that Blinov continued to communicate with students outside the institute and invite them to some projects, but it seemed that this was no longer of much importance.
And only now, when the name of EGTI flashed again on social networks, did it become clear that nothing had been completed.
Jokes about "tits"
Former students knew that some time after his dismissal, Blinov began to appear at the university again and teach classes, although he was not officially listed there as a teacher. However, talk about harassment stopped for some time.
“We had girls there, they talked with Blinovsky students, everything was ok,” says Andrey.
However, against the backdrop of the recent scandal, comments from current students who study with Blinov began to surface. They claim that the teacher continues to behave inappropriately.
“She has slender legs and he would like to climb between them.” For example, one of the students anonymously said : “Initially, our master was Azalia Vsevolodovna Blinova, but due to her age, she stopped coming to the institute, and Alexander Blinov began to appear instead. We knew that he was involved in stories of harassment, that because of him, 11 students were expelled from the last course. In addition, we were told about two students who at different times were found naked in the department under substances. Our course did not attach any importance to this, but we were wrong.
He began to show very ambiguous signs of attention. He hugged someone by the waist and kissed them on the cheek, and the coolest girls on the course were the ones who went with him to restaurants and bars and stayed at home overnight. In classes there are constant jokes about sex, who has what kind of legs and, excuse the expression, “tits.” One girl came in a short skirt, and there was a comment that she had slender legs and he would like to climb between them.”
Film agent Elena Pulinovich began collecting messages and posts from former and current students on her page , and an initiative group gathered around her. They recently released a video called “You Can’t Be Silent in Speaking,” where they also interviewed a current student who spoke anonymously. She said that Blinov kissed her on the cheek, to which she asked him not to do this. After that, he began to call her “mediocre” and ignore her. She also added that the teacher "touches girls in places that should not be accessible."
In a comment to It's My City, another student said that Blinov appears at class drunk: “Everyone saw how he carried bags of alcohol, hid them and periodically went to these corners and drank. The guys also had access there. We just go in and see that there is wine there. He often came with coffee cups, like there was nothing suspicious, but he never cleaned up after himself. And when the students removed the lids from the cups at the end of the day while cleaning, it became obvious that there was no coffee at all.”
Бывшие и нынешние студенты задаются вопросом: даже если доказательств физического насилия со стороны преподавателя нет и полиция тут ничего сделать не может, то как все это влияет на учебный процесс и почему руководство института позволило вернуться преподавателю, который приглашает студенток к себе домой с ночевкой?
«Человек, которого в 60 лет интересуют девчонки, которым 16, 17, 18, — это странно. It's scary. Это должен ректор пресекать», — рассуждает бывшая студентка ЕГТИ Мария.
Сейчас на фоне скандала Блинов, как говорят студенты, перестал появляться в институте. Однако ни официального заявления, ни конкретных действий от руководства пока не последовало — а бывшие студенты считают, что человек, годами использующий свое служебное положение для домогательств , не должен оставаться безнаказанным.
Автор: Юлия Дудкина