As part of TV3’s new-season advertising campaign, billboards featuring Ivan Konovaltsev, host of the TV3 news program “X-Versions. Other News,” were put up in September 2012 in 49 cities across Russia, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Rostov-on-Don. The resemblance between TV3 host Ivan Konovaltsev and well-known opposition figure Alexei Navalny outraged Rostov Cossacks, led by Ataman Sergei Faustov, and they sent letters to the prosecutor’s offices of Rostov-on-Don’s Kirovsky District and the Rostov Region. “The Cossacks of the SKO ‘Rostov Stanitsa’—a body of territorial public self-government of the Cossacks of Rostov-on-Don’s Kirovsky District—are outraged and do not agree with the actions of the advertising company. Under the guise of advertising for the TV3 channel, the scandalously notorious appearance of A. Navalny is being promoted around the clock,” the letter sent to the prosecutor’s office says. TV3 officially states that the billboard layouts use a photograph of Ivan Konovaltsev, host of the project “X-Versions. Other News,” and that this advertising campaign has nothing to do with Alexei Navalny. Source A big hello to the Rostov Cossacks. And my apologies to TV host Ivan Konovaltsev: apparently, he’ll have to grow his hair out—then it really won’t look alike.
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