Russian journalist Sergey Pakhomenko. Source: ru.wikipedia.orgOn the eve of the new year holidays, the executive committee of Russia’s PEN-centre expelled the journalist Sergey Parkhomenko for life. Parkhomenko, the founder of the Last Address and Dissernet projects. Parkhomenko was accused of “straying from the fundamental principles of the PEN-international’s charter” and for “provocative activities incompatible with the aims and remit of the Russian PEN-centre.” (link in Russian)
Furthermore, the leadership of the PEN-centre has suspended the membership of poet Grigory Petukhov for one year, and issued a stern warning to the writer Marina Vishnevetskaya for “distributing to the media tendentious texts and video recordings of the PEN-centre’s summit on 15 December 2016, which led to the misrepresentation of the nature of the centre by malevolent internet users and figures in mass-media.”
After it went into force, famous Russian writers began to protest the executive committee’s decision. Believing its acts to be unjustified, they began to leave the writers’ club. To date, over 20 people have written on their decision to leave the club — neither the international nor the Russian branches of the PEN-centre have ever before seen a conflict on this scale. oDR heard from current and former members of the PEN-centre, to find out what’s going on:
