A tenured professor who was fired after complaining of low pay to Russia’s prime minister has been given his job back after a public outcry prompted the Kremlin to order an investigation into his dismissal.
University administrators in the southern city of Taganrog fired professor Viktor Makarenko last month after he wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev complaining of low wages. Following a public outcry and media attention, Medvedev instructed the education minister and governor of the region to reevaluate the professor’s dismissal.
“I apologize to professor Viktor Makarenko,” Rostov region’s deputy education minister Andrey Fateyev was cited as saying by the Bloknot-rostov.ru local news website on Thursday.
The public official said that Makarenko would be reinstated by the college director who fired him, who would herself be fired over the scandal.
Following his reinstatement, Makarenko expressed gratitude to his former students and online outlets for shedding light on his dismissal.
“It’s a shame that the problem of salary indexation for state employees exists in many regions of the country,” he told Bloknot, citing his original complaint to the government.
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