Professor of Petrozavodsk State University, Associate Professor of Institute of History, Political and Social Sciences Gleb Yarovoy will challenge his dismissal in court. Recently he filed a suit in Petrozavodsk city court. According to Yarovoy, reason for the dismissal was the incoming 'request' to leadership of PetrSU, on the basis of which the university administration has demanded his explanation of two trips abroad, committed without issuing travel documents.
In court, professor is going to find out why the university administration did not make a reprimand or use some other form of disciplinary punishment, and immediately signed the order of dismissal. Gleb Yarovoy filed a lawsuit demanding to change the qualification of the offense, to reduce the severity of the penalty and to reestablish him.
According to him, request was sent to the University in November 2016. It was referred to a visit to Georgia in June and to Finland in September. In the explanatory report, professor explained that he really went on business trips without registration of related documents. But, according to him, it can’t be called "absence". In June, during visit of the scientific-practical conference in Georgia, lessons have not been carried out, and the chairman of the examination committee was warned about leaving. Since the invitation came at the last moment, Yarovoy did not have time to issue traveling certificate – bureaucratic procedures do not allow to do it in a short time. In September, Yarovoy was the only scientist from Russia invited to the international conference on Arctic topics in Helsinki. Then he tried to formalize a business trip, but was rejected by the university management on the eve of departure.
Explanations of Yarovoy probably did not suit Rector Anatoly Voronin, and he was fired on November 18. He worked in Petrozavodsk State University without disciplinary action for 14 years, but the university administration did not consider it necessary to discuss the situation with the employee and limited to formal procedures – reclamation of explanatory report and issuing of an order of dismissal.
Employees of the Institute intercede for their colleague. At the meeting of the Faculty Council they took an unanimous decision to send an appeal to the leadership of Petrozavodsk State University with a request to revoke the decision of dismissal. A rector’s reply was terse: "No legal grounds to change the solution".
Yarovoy himself, without challenging violation of labor regulations of high school, associate the university management solution with his social activities. He led regional office of movement to protect the rights of voters "Voice" in the spring of 2016 on a voluntary basis; after that he was informally warned that it may become a problem to continue working at the university. Yarovoy is also the author of a number of materials on human rights violations in the Republic of Karelia, published on «7x7».
Lodger of the appeal with information about visiting of Georgia and Finland (editorial of «7x7» sent a request to the institution, but did not receive a response so far; university does not answer oral enquiry) remains unknown. Answering another official request, the pro-rector of PetrSU Sergey Korzhov, signed the order for dismissal, said he could not provide the document as the required enquiry was "a subject to return".
Earlier, similar situation occurred in Irkutsk: a historian Alexei Petrov, also candidate of political sciences, professor of Irkutsk State University and head of the regional branch of "Voice", was fired two days before Yarovoy's dismissal. The reason was also traveling abroad; one of the activists of the National Liberation Movement sent a complaint to the leadership of the university.
