A restaurant in St. Petersburg has fired its head chef, Grigory Pashukevich, for writing something nasty on Facebook about the recently assassinated separatist leader Arseny Pavlov, better known by his bizarre nickname, “Motorola.”
Not long after he published his mockery of Motorola, Pashukevich deleted the text and posted an apology. In a fit of indecision, Pashukevich then deleted his apology, too.
Shortly thereafter, the “C1tizen” restaurant announced on the social network Vkontakte that Pashukevich is no longer employed by the establishment.
On social media, the restaurant managed to upset both critics and supporters of eastern Ukraine’s pro-Russian separatists, provoking angry responses and bad online reviews for Pashukevich’s harsh words about Motorola and the decision to fire him over those remarks.
Arseny “Motorola” Pavlov was killed in his apartment building in Donetsk on October 16 when a bomb exploded in the complex’s elevator. The head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, has blamed Ukrainian security forces for the attack.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow never official supported Pavlov, saying the man’s “glorification” in Russian society is merely the reflection of popular solidarity with the embattled people of the Donbas.
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