Whistle-Blowing Schoolteacher Wins Case
Published: December 5, 2012 (Issue # 1738)
St. Petersburg schoolteacher Tatyana Ivanova, who spoke out about falsifications at the State Duma elections last year, has won a court case against her former superiors.
The St. Petersburg city court dismissed the claim of Natalya Nazarova, head of the Vasileostrovsky district education department, who had sought to obtain recognition that what Ivanova had told Novaya Gazeta newspaper had “discredited her reputation.”
Ivanova came to prominence after she refused Nazarova’s instructions to falsify results of elections to the State Duma in favor of the United Russia ruling party at her local polling station in December 2011. Ivanova told Novaya Gazeta that members of local election commissions had been instructed to adjust the results. In the case of Ivanova, the person who issued her — and a number of other teachers on her commission — with instructions was Nazarova.
In response, Nazarova filed a suit against Ivanova. In June 2012, the Vasileostrovsky district court partially satisfied Nazarova’s demands, and three phrases out of the four in question were recognized as “having discredited her reputation.” The defendants, including Ivanova and Novaya Gazeta, were ordered to pay damages of 30,000 rubles ($970). However, the defendants chose to appeal the district court’s decision, and the city court found in favor of the defendants, news site Fontanka.ru reported.