Accusations of musical "theft" and greed: what is known about the conflict between Averbukh and Rudkovskaya

"Communized - and into the bushes"

In the world of Russian figure skating, another scandal is brewing, the protagonists of which are the famous Russian choreographer Ilya Averbukh and producer Yana Rudkovskaya.

On New Year's holidays, several ice shows were successfully held at once, the director of one of which, “The Wizard of Oz,” was Averbukh. The wife of two-time Olympic champion and author of another performance of Cinderella, Evgeni Plushenko, made an unexpected statement. She accused the choreographer of illegally using the song “Hold” performed by Russian pop singer Dima Bilan, whom he represents.

In her Telegram channel, Rudkovskaya said that for a month and a half she had been waiting for an apology from Averbukh, but they did not follow. She emphasized that the offense would not go unpunished, and intends to receive monetary compensation, which in such cases, according to her, is 5 million rubles.

“He communicated ... and into the bushes, so much so that the First Channel itself is not up to date!” This is not good, Ilya. Although you tell the media that I live in different worlds and don’t understand the ice show industry (selling definitely more tickets in Moscow and St. Petersburg), for some reason I use my music content. Apparently, because it is of high quality and trending! ”Wrote the producer.

The response of the director was not long in coming. He gave the number of the contract with the public organization dealing with copyright, and also assured that he acted in accordance with the legislation of Russia.

“In order to fulfill the obligations stipulated by the contract, we submitted reports to all these organizations about all musical works that we performed publicly during the event, and based on them we made a transfer of royalties,” cites the text of the statement by Averbukh Sports. ru.

However, such an answer did not satisfy Rudkovskaya.

“The phonogram in the number of the magnificent Murvanidze is clearly very different from the original by Dima Bilan. Our lawyers chewed this for you a month and a half ago, have you really still not understood the topic of what you did? ”Rudkovskaya was indignant.

“Rudkovskaya lives in her own world”

However, the reason for the conflict was probably not the alleged copyright infringement at all, but Averbukh’s interview about skaters' fees, which was incorrectly interpreted by some media. It was reported that the fee of Evgenia Medvedeva, who played the role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, is 150 thousand rubles for the performance. Many were outraged by this amount, since, in their opinion, the two-time world champion deserves more.

It is worth noting that the interview of the choreographer surprised the two-time Olympic champion Maxim Trankov, who for several years took part in his performances together with his partner and wife Tatyana Volosozhar. On his page on social networks, he wrote with irony that he did not know anything about the fact that artists of ice shows receive an amount of 150-200 thousand rubles for the output.

Wow, why don’t we know ??? 😅 https://t.co/qhC36RGmIV

The choreographer hastened to refute this information. He emphasized that in his interview he talked about average payments to the participants of the show, and Medvedev’s fee is comparable to the rate of the world's leading skaters. However, the exact amount was not announced.

Despite explanations from Averbukh, Rudkovskaya decided to join the criticism and said that figure skating stars should get more for their work.

“The girl skated three shows a day, and it’s very difficult ... Not all men can stand three shows, not like fragile girls! We never gave more than two performances a day. I can’t imagine how strong-willed they are doing it! Of course, Ilyusha could have thrown athletes of such a level for unique efficiency! ”Wrote Rudkovskaya.

At the same time, the producer did not disclose the fees of the participants in the ice performance "Cinderella" Evgeni Plushenko, whose main star was another leading Russian figure skater Alina Zagitova. She motivated her refusal by the fact that she did not want to become like Averbukh, since the publication of such data is unfair to other athletes.

Averbukh declined to comment on the allegations against him, saying that "Rudkovskaya lives in her own world."