[pphysch]

I doubt that the ultimate motive was to "present Ukrainian authors", because they could have done that by hiring actual experts in this space, or even just giving out free books by such authors.

It seems like the ultimate motive was to "ban Dostoevsky" and they pushed until they found a way to do so with plausible deniability. I.e. "We didn't do dismiss you, you just chose not comply with our unreasonable policy changes".

[ilSignorCarlo]

no, sorry, it's not like that. Paolo Nori, the writer who was supposed to hold the course, is a well known and loved writer in Italy. Besides being an expert on Russian literature, he's also funny and his lessons are special because he's doing them. The same course on Dostoevsky by any other professor wouldn't have gotten the same attention and interest

[hirako2000]

He meant they could have hired other experts to cover the Ukrainian course part. and kept Paolo for the Russian expertise part of the course. the university clearly wasn't interested in getting attention on what he had to say. precisely because what he had to say would gather much attention.

[rambojazz]

The way I understand this situation is not that that they wanted to "ban" Dostoevsky. Instead, they tried to postpone it in order to avoid any escalation or negative reactions given the current times. Still doesn't make sense but it's a very different reason.