Writer Shenderovich doused with ketchup in Lithuania by political migrant from Russia

Pro-Ukrainian activists have picketed a speech by Russian opposition writer and publicist Viktor Shenderovich in Vilnius, Lithuania. One of them, Vladimir Shipitsyn, a political migrant from the Russian Federation, doused the writer with ketchup.

Source: SOTA news outlet

Details: On 11 May, pro-Ukrainian activists organised a picket in Vilnius in front of the building where Shenderovich's creative event was taking place.

According to the newspaper, the protesters broadcast a fragment of the writer's speech, in which he calls the Russian military "our guys", and sarcastically urged visitors of the concert to give money directly to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Private Military Company. These calls are related to the fact that in November 2022, Shenderovich paid Prigozhin the court-ordered amount of 1.5 million roubles [approximately US$19,500 – ed.] as compensation for moral damage – the publicist called him a "criminal" and "murderer".

During the concert interval, Shenderovich came out to the activists. However, the conversation with them did not turn out to be constructive – one of the protesters poured ketchup on the writer.

In the video showing the incident, Shenderovich can be heard calling the attacker an "idiot", thanking the activists "for a 'meaningful' dialogue", saying that they "have not read anything I have written", and calling them "narrow-minded people".

After the incident, as SOTA reports, Shenderovich said that he could not help but go out to the protesters, but "sometimes brains fail" [meaning that it was an unreasonable thing to do – ed.].  

"As Ibsen said in his play An Enemy of the People: never put on your best trousers when you go out to defend the truth," Shenderovich commented on the altercation with the activists.

Later, it turned out that the ketchup was poured on Shenderovich by Vladimir Shipitsyn, a Russian political migrant and a representative of the Peaceful Resistance movement.

SOTA has noted that Shipitsyn emigrated to Lithuania in May 2022 as a witness in a case concerning the movement, in which activist Olga Smirnova is currently on trial for "fake information about the [Russian] army". At the Free Russia Forum, Shipitsyn suggested that Russians buy munitions for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and sign them with the names of the buyers to take revenge on Putin's regime.

For reference: Viktor Shenderovich is a Russian satirist, TV and radio host, publicist and member of the Anti-War Committee of Russia.

In January 2022, he announced that he had left the Russian Federation. The Russian Ministry of Justice added him to the list of "foreign agents".

At the end of January 2022, Shenderovich, along with other well-known scientists, writers, journalists and human rights activists in Russia, spoke out against a possible war with Ukraine and signed the Statement of Peace Supporters Against the Party of War in the Russian Leadership.

In April 2023, Shenderovich called Russian soldiers "our guys" and accused Ukrainians of "outbursts of Nazism". On 29 April 2023, Shenderovich was added to the Myrotvorets (Peacemaker) database [a website and an NGO that shares the list of the people unofficially considered to be enemies of Ukraine – ed.].

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