MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/: An independent review board has found a tweet published by Andrei Malosolov, a journalist and former head of the press service for the Russian Football Union (RFU), to be racist and offensive, the prosecution told Moscow’s Perovsky Court hearing the case against the reporter on Friday. The tweet was about ex-FC Spartak Moscow footballer Luiz Adriano.
"An independent linguistic analysis has unveiled psychological and linguistic patterns that amount to a violation of human dignity on the basis of race. Malosolov addressed Adriano on his personal Twitter account, calling him 'a Spartak monkey' in his post" the prosecution said.
Malosolov is now facing a fine of up to 20,000 rubles ($310), or 100 hours of community service, or 15 days behind bars for an administrative offence (incitement to hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity). Malosolov is denying the charges and has requested that the court terminate the proceedings.
The case was brought to court after Malosolov posted a tweet following a match between two Russian teams — FC Spartak and CSKA — in which CSKA lost 1-3. The journalist used a racial slur to describe Luiz Adriano, who was then a Spartak forward. The tweet was later removed.
Malosolov headed the RFU press service in 2005-2010. In 2007, he co-created the All-Russian Fans’ Union, the first Russia-wide union of fans that was later expelled from the RFU for ethical violations.
