Editor-in-Chief of Mediazona Sergey Smirnov was called to the police to give explanations due to a libel check against figure skating coach Eteri Tutberidze.
Photo: Sergey Smirnov
In February State Duma deputy from the Just Russia party Oleg Nilov demanded to initiate a criminal case against Smirnov. The reason was a retweet of a thread about athletes by coach Tutberidze. The journalist retweeted the thread with the words “why figure skating should be banned.”
The tweets talked about the conflicts between the skaters and Tutberidze, and how the athletes under her leadership received injuries that were incompatible with their future careers.
The tweets mentioned Olympic champions and medalists Yulia Lipnitskaya, Evgenia Medvedeva, Alina Zagitova, as well as figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was suspected of doping at the 2022 Olympics. Later, Nilov suggested developing a bill and sending him to «prison for many, many years» for insulting Russian athletes.