The claim that TV host Ivan Urgant held a lecture for students at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) is not accurate. The online publication Paragraf reported on the matter, but MGIMO’s press secretary, Victoria Kalashnikova, dismissed the information firmly as false. She stated that there has been no event or appearance by Urgant at MGIMO, describing the report as a joke or outright lie. Kalashnikova emphasized that the university makes all official announcements about campus events available on its public website, ensuring that students, staff, and the public can verify activities directly from the source.
On October 11, the Public News Service referenced social media posts from Stefania Malikov, the daughter of singer Dmitry Malikov, claiming that Urgant had been teaching at MGIMO’s Faculty of International Journalism. Such posts fed the rumor, but there is no corroboration from MGIMO or any official channels supporting this claim. The university has consistently maintained that no schedule or public notice confirms Urgant’s involvement in teaching or guest lectures at its departments.
Looking back to February 2022, Urgant’s long‑running program Evening Urgant paused its broadcasts. Urgant publicly opposed the military actions in Ukraine and temporarily relocated abroad. Channel One has clarified multiple times that the show was not canceled, but rather not on air for a period while the channel operated in what it described as an information mode, during which entertainment programming did not take place. This context is sometimes misunderstood or misrepresented in later online discussions about Urgant’s activities and availability in Russia.
There have also been assertions from Ivan Urgant’s father suggesting that the Evening Urgant program could have been shut down as a precaution. Those statements reflect individual opinions rather than a formal decision by the channel or MGIMO, and they do not constitute an official closure announcement. In all cases, the university and the channel have maintained that any changes to programming or campus activities are communicated through their official channels and press releases, not through informal posts or secondary reports.