Пресс-релизы/Позиция НП «Викимедиа РУ» по поводу деятельности Владимира Медейко/en

Wikimedia RU's position on Vladimir Medeyko's activities. May 25, 2023

On May 24 at the Russian Internet Forum (RIF 2023) Vladimir Medeyko presented the project of open encyclopedia "Ruwiki", which is created with the help of wiki engine and using already existing articles of Russian Wikipedia, and introduced himself to the press as "general director of the NGO "Internet Encyclopedia Ruwiki".

At that time, he was also the director of "Wikimedia RU", an independent non-profit organization supporting the development of Wikimedia projects, the most prominent of which is Wikipedia, and despite his chosen official introduction, this title was used by the media in the publications that followed. Moreover, in the program of the Russian Internet Forum, he was also listed specifically as the director of Wikimedia RU.

Wikimedia RU officially states that Medeyko prepared his project together with Dmitry Rozhkov, also a member of Wikimedia RU, without the knowledge of his other colleagues in the organization. The news came as an unpleasant surprise to the members. Medeyko's employment in the new project is a conflict of interest, which had a noticeable effect on Wikimedia RU.

Due to the crisis situation, the members of Wikimedia RU held an emergency meeting. At it, Vladimir Medeyko who has headed the organization since its founding for 15 years, resigned as director "by mutual agreement" and left the organization; Dmitry Rozhkov also left. Stanislav Kozlovsky, also one of the co-founders of the organization, who previously held the position of executive director, was elected director.

According to the results of the voting it was decided not to dissolve Wikimedia RU:

• We want and will fulfill our work obligations to our partners (e.g., planned contests);
• We want to use our resources wisely, without wasting time promoting a new name, in order to continue to function in the international wiki environment, and to maintain relationships with partners who contribute new and unique content to Wikipedia;
• The organization's history makes it possible to seek funding in Russia for free knowledge wikis.

The serious organizational problems that exist can be resolved without disbanding the organization. Moreover, they do not affect the operation of Wikimedia wikis in Russian or other languages in Russia. All these projects are run by volunteer communities, and the mission of Wikimedia RU is to help create and disseminate free knowledge and community of these wikis.

We plan to reform the activities of Wikimedia RU, and hope to involve a wide range of active volunteers in this work.