MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th June, 2020) In this digest, we will discuss the end of one advertising deal over protests in the US, the right to own one's phone number, and a new dry dock for an aircraft carrier.
AUDI HALTS AD DEAL WITH SOBCHAK
Audi AG has ended an advertising deal with journalist and public figure, Ksenia Sobchak, partly due to her controversial Instagram posts about the anti-racism protests in the United States, the company's representative, Werner Neuhold, said Thursday.
The journalist said on Instagram that she was against racism and police brutality but criticized the damage to private property that occurred during the protests. Later, when social network users across the world were posting black squares in show of support, Sobchak posted a video of a black square accompanied by an old Russian pop song. Sobchak then deleted the post, while Russian comedian Alexander Gudkov explained that the post was made as part of his show Comment Out, as a "punishment" for Sobchak within the show. She would never have posted anything like that herself, the comedian said.
Audi is against any form of racism or discrimination and takes seriously any suspicions of these, Neuhold told reporters, adding that the contract with Sobchak was halted effective immediately.
Audi representative said, however, that the decision to end the deal had been made before the posts because the company was reviewing its advertising policy. According to Neuhold, the company told Sobchak about it orally on June 16.
The journalist initially had an eight-year deal, the press service of the company said, but did not disclose the remuneration.
A source familiar with the situation told Sputnik that the Instagram posts were one of the reasons why Audi decided to stop working with Sobchak.
Can a person own a phone number? Just Russia lawmakers Dmitry Ionin and Fedot Tumusov believe that it should be possible to own a number and even bequeath it to someone. The lawmaker have submitted a draft law on this issue to the lower house of the parliament.
The initiative aims, in part, to cover the rights of people who own public accounts, also known as channels, on Telegram messenger. However, owning a number can be important for a wide variety of reasons, Ionin said, as many people have linked their phone numbers to online banking services or have online businesses.
"If a user loses access to the number, they may lose access to the account [on social network] and carry financial losses. So, it is now logical to make it possible for a network client to own a phone number. At the same time, the right of ownership could be an additional service, available at the request of the client," Ionin said.
The United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) and Orgenergostroy company signed a new contract for building a dry dock for the repairs of Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the head of USC told Sputnik.
On May 21, the USC voided a similar contract with another company citing its failure to adhere to the commitments.
"The terms are the same � Admiral Kuznetsov should be able to go into the dock in the summer of 2021 so that it could be transferred to the client [the Russian Navy] in 2022," the head of the USC, Aleksey Rakhmanov, said.
In December, the ship caught fire, when a spark from welding landed in a compartment where fuel was spilled.
