Alexandrov, Igor Alexandrovich (journalist)

Born June 21, 1956 .

He was the founder and served as general director of the television and radio company TOR, one of the first independent television channels in Ukraine, created immediately after the collapse of the USSR. He was the host of the author’s acute television program of the 90s “Without Retouching”. Founder of the newspapers "I myself" and "Technopolis".

In 1994, he was nominated as a candidate for deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

Since 1996, it has been prosecuted by the Ukrainian authorities and law enforcement agencies for its tough stance against government corruption. He was forced to seek protection from the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the National Security Service, who refused him.

July 3, 2001 Igor Alexandrov was brutally beaten for his journalistic activities aimed at exposing total corruption in Eastern Ukraine, and died a few days later - July 7, 2001.

It is believed that his journalistic activities interfered with many well-known politicians in Ukraine, such as Yanukovych , Kuchma , Akhmetov and others. In the light of the subsequent assassination of Gongadze, the “Aleksandrov case” caused a significant public outcry. In the course of his investigation, responsibility was assigned to the Rybakov brothers, leaders of the local organized crime group.

After a two-day reading of the motivational part of the decision, on July 7, 2006, the Lugansk Region Court of Appeal announced the verdict on five accused of bodily harm that led to the death of Igor Aleksandrov, director of the TOR television company. Dmitry Rybak, as the organizer of the attack, was sentenced to 11 years in prison; performers Alexander Onyshko - to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property, Ruslan Tursunov - to 6 years of imprisonment; Sergei Koritsky as an accomplice - to 2.6 years in prison. Other terms were also received by other members of the “Gang of Fishermen” (organized crime group “17 station”).

In an attempt to convict internal affairs workers who participated in the falsification of Aleksandrov’s case, all the defendants were released by decision of the Zaporozhye Court of Appeal on February 19, 2009 . Regarding the investigator for particularly important cases of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Alexander Kalifitsky: the court recognized that during the pre-trial investigation, Kalifitsky “practiced illegal methods of pressure on the accused and witnesses, manipulated public opinion, passing out interviews.” In addition, the court noted that “Kalifitsky was marked by rare audacity: giving evidence as a witness, he threatened the defendants right in the courtroom. That is, he showed a demonstrative disrespect to the court. ”

The name of Igor Alexandrov is stamped at the Journalists Memorial at the Museum of Journalism and News in Washington , USA.

In 2016, he was awarded posthumously the Order of Freedom from the President of Ukraine “For significant personal contribution to state building, socio-economic, scientific, technical, cultural and educational development of Ukraine, significant labor achievements and high professionalism” ^[1] .

In Slavyansk there is a street and an alley named after Igor Alexandrov ^[2] .

• Order of Freedom (posthumously, August 22, 2016) - for a significant personal contribution to state building, socio-economic, scientific, technical, cultural and educational development of Ukraine, significant labor achievements and high professionalism ^[3] .

• Penchuk B., Kuzin S. Aleksandrov Igor // Donetsk Mafia: Anthology. - K .: Polygraphbook, 2006 .-- ISBN 966-530-041-5 .