And all because one of its contributors wrote articles critical of his former employer. A court in Cherepovets placed the internet magazine (http://zhurnal.lib.ru/) on the Justice Ministry’s list of extremist publications after retired Severstal employee Vitaly Dunayev used the site to publish articles attacking the steel and mining giant’s owner, Alexei Mordashov.
The court ruling sees the entire samizdat website pigeonholed alongside those of neo-Nazi and radical Islamist groups. Distribution of any of its articles, and not just those penned by Dunayev, whose essays, according to The Moscow Times, were described by prosecutors as “propaganda” against officials and Severstal management, is, as a result, a criminal offence punishable by a fine and/or spell in gaol.
Severstal is, coincidentally, the city’s main employer. Funny that . . . .
