Resignations of governors will be followed by personnel changes in the government. Several ministers may leave their posts until March 2018, a source told FederalPress. Who exactly is threatened with resignation and what political bonuses will the reshuffle in the cabinet bring to the president before the elections? For details, see the article by FederalPress.

A ministerial fall is expected in Russia. There is no talk of the resignation of the prime minister yet, but the sword of Damocles hangs over the heads of a number of ministers. This information was shared with FederalPress by a source in the State Duma. The interlocutor believes that this is a continuation of the course on personnel changes, taken this fall, when the governors of a number of regions began to resign.

“This course will certainly be continued and with a high degree of probability we will see new faces in the government,” the source said.

Departure candidates

According to our interlocutor, the heads of the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Construction and other departments are threatened with resignation. Some members of the government have become irritants for the population. First of all, this concerns the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky and the Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov. Political scientist Dmitry Zhuravlev notes that personnel changes are of serious importance from a political point of view, but are unlikely to be reflected in the work of the government.

“There is certainly a lot of political sense in resignations. A change in the direction of the government's work, although the Ministry of Finance is the key department, should not be expected. At the same time, the Minister of Finance is also being removed, who is the idol of our economic liberalism and the head of the Ministry of Culture is the idol of Russian conservatism. People are being removed from two edges, "Zhuravlev said in an interview with a FederalPress correspondent.

According to Zhuravlev, the most significant figure on this list is Anton Siluanov... It is with his name that various segments of the population associate the economic problems in the country. But for his resignation, a willful decision of the president is necessary, since the influence of the current finance minister is enormous. Removing Siluanov from his post is not easy.

“From an electoral point of view, this (resignation) can have an effect. Our liberals are extremely tired of our Minister of Culture. Give our conservatives and our leftists only into the hands of the Minister of Finance. People think that there is a bad Ministry of Finance, which collects taxes from everyone. And small businesses are dissatisfied, and pensioners complain. But Siluanov's influence is enormous and cannot be removed so easily. This should be the final decision of the president, ”summed up Zhuravlev.

As for the head of the Ministry of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, rumors around his resignation have been circulating for a long time. According to many political analysts, a campaign has been launched against Medinsky by a number of Kremlin players. Last week historian Pavel Apothecary citing his sources, he wrote in Vedomosti that Medinsky has “many opponents in the Kremlin” and is threatened with resignation. The scandal around the dissertation of the head of the Ministry of Culture seriously hit his reputation. The Expert Council of the All-Russian Attestation Commission recommended to deprive him of the title of Doctor of Historical Sciences.

“Even if it’s crooked, the reputation in Russia still works - not like in Europe, where its institution forces ministers and even presidents to resign after being accused of plagiarism, but at least as an instrument of an apparatus struggle,” said Pavel Aptekar.

Sources call the Minister of Construction and Housing and Utilities another candidate for departure Michael Men... It is reported that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is dissatisfied with his work.

In April of this year, the Ministry of Construction announced the failure of the overhaul program for 2016. It was completed by less than 50%. The Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation also has a grudge against the department. According to auditors' checks, violations of the ministry are estimated at 3 billion rubles, of which 2 are inappropriate spending of budget funds.

It should be noted, however, that I have many supporters in the highest echelons of power and authority that will not allow him to sink into political oblivion. In August of this year, FederalPress, citing a source close to the Presidential Administration, said that Mikhail Men is considered as one of the main candidates to replace the Governor of the Moscow Region, Andrei Vorobyov.

Resignations are necessary

The Kremlin needs the resignation of members of the government ahead of the presidential elections. In the previous two presidential terms, Vladimir Putin dismissed prime ministers, but this time tradition will be broken, FederalPress sources and many political scientists are convinced. Dmitry Medvedev remains one of Vladimir Putin's closest associates and enjoys his high level of trust. His position as prime minister is very strong. But the change of persons in the Cabinet is necessary for a more dynamic presidential campaign. Therefore, the ministers will go under the knife.

Russian experts are unanimous in the opinion that the resignation of top officials will be perceived positively by the population and will certainly add electoral points to Putin. Moreover, the demand for changes in society is growing, say the country's leading sociological agencies. The political scientist thinks so Abbas Gallyamov.

“The voters will accept practically any personnel decisions now with satisfaction. The demand for renewal is growing in society and the appearance of new faces in the government corresponds to this demand, "Gallyamov told FederalPress.

Deputy Pavel Stepanov, who headed Central Parnership, will become Minister of Culture. Stepanov can replace Medinsky at his post?

Pavel Stepanov, the ex-head of the film distributor "Central Partnership" (TsPSh) will take the post of Deputy Minister of Culture. Stepanov will be responsible for the departments of cinematography and state support for art and folk art, which include theaters, circuses and philharmonic societies. IN recent times the work of departments is accompanied by scandals. Pavel Stepanov, according to information received by The Moscow Post from the sources of the Presidential Administration, will become the successor of Vladimir Medinsky.

Despite the fact that recently Pavel Stepanov headed the TsPSh, which is part of Gazprom-Media, the track record of the future deputy. Minister of Culture is impressive. He worked as the head of the legal department of the Ministry of the Press when it was headed by Mikhail Lesin. After his appointment as adviser to the president in 2004, he became an assistant in the state and legal department of the presidential administration. In 2014, at the invitation of Lesin, he headed the Central Sports School, in 2016 he headed the Media Communication Union, promoting the idea of \u200b\u200bregulating the media television industry.

Instead of a writer and a PR man, a professional lawyer and manager may soon become the Minister of Culture, who may be able to bring the Ministry of Culture to a completely different level. In 1994 -1999. Stepanov worked in Russian and foreign consulting companies. He is not a balabol, but a professional top manager. Which, probably, the Ministry of Culture needs today, mired in scandals with theft of funds.

Pavel Stepanov will replace Stepan Obyrvalin, who will move to the post of deputy. Minister in charge of the restoration of cultural objects. It remained without a curator after the arrest of ex-minister Grigory Pirumov, who was suspected of embezzling funds for the construction of buildings for the Hermitage.

It is high time for the Ministry of Culture to restore order. Totally agree last year the department was shaken by several scandals related to cinema and theaters, which will be supervised by Pavel Stepanov. Non-return of funds allocated for the creation of films from the Cinema Fund, the "case of director Serebryannikov" accused of embezzlement of funds, abuse of theater directors who pay their own fees, issuance of distribution certificates and the situation with the film "Matilda", in which almost the entire the country.

All this testifies to the fact that the Ministry of Culture is probably a complete mess. Isn't it time for Vladimir Medinsky to do something else? For example, writing another book or making a new movie. According to the minister, millions of people read and watch them. What other recognition does Medinsky need? Or, in addition to confirming his creative solvency, he is also interested in financial condition. Which, perhaps, his position provides?

"Uncultured" deputies of Medinsky?

With the deputies, Vladimir Medinsky is just a disaster. It is possible that he selects them in the image and likeness of his beloved. The most famous of them is Grigory Pirumov, who was involved in the "case of restorers". A group of persons led by Pirumov was involved in the theft of funds in the amount of 100 million rubles. during the restoration of cultural heritage objects.

Instead of the 5 years requested by the prosecution, Pirumov received only 1.5 years, which he had already served at the time of the trial. Was released, but not for long. Soon he was arrested for another case - embezzlement of funds in the amount of 850 million rubles. during the construction of the buildings of the Hermitage. And in this case, Pirumov may not get off so easily. Although, there is an option - to make a deal with the investigation and tell the investigators something interesting about Vladimir Medinsky.

For the same case, Boris Mazo, the ex-head of the property management department of the Ministry of Culture, who is on the run, was arrested in absentia. The situation with him is more complicated. In order for him to tell something, you first need to catch him. Recently, the court has seized a residential house, apartment and land plot belonging to Boris Mazo. The theft case is still under investigation. And, perhaps, Medinsky, just in case, prepared a replacement in the person of Stepanov. What if the Minister of Culture himself somehow appears in the case?

Sergei Obryvalin, who supervised the department before Pavel Stepanov, had nothing to do with culture at all until his appointment to the post of deputy. did not have a minister. Obryvalin is known for his work at Aeroflot, where he was in charge of sales. Obryvalin had to leave after a change in the company of the team. After that, he got into the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture, and in 2015 became Medinsky's deputy. Probably, Obryvalin could have been an avid movie fan. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain his appointment to the post. Where are the sales and where are the movies?

Sergey Obryvalin - not a rival to Pavel Stepanov?

He was "famous" for the fact that he put his signature on the scandalous recall of the rental certificate of the film "Death of Stalin". Maybe he didn't like him personally? Tastes, as they say, do not argue. But the rank of deputy minister, apparently, gives the right to control the tastes of the audience.

The cliff is probably very close to Medinsky, since he defended his Ph.D. thesis on the topic "Assessment of the quality of functioning of radio navigation and radar facilities in the airport zone in conditions of unintentional electromagnetic interference." Dissernet found large-scale borrowings in it on 58 out of 122 analyzed pages. Similar claims were made to the Minister of Culture himself, but in the end he managed to prove that he was not a plagiarist. And how did he do it?

Another ex-Deputy Minister of Culture Pavel Pozhigailo is a rocket scientist by education. In 2003 he became a deputy of the State Duma, and after the end of the powers of the Duma of the IV convocation, he immediately fell into the chair of deputy minister. Probably, during his work as a parliamentarian, he acquired the necessary cultural skills.

Pozhigailo also advocated a ban on the film "The Death of Stalin", and also proposed to exclude Mikhail Bulgakov's work "The Master and Margarita" from the school curriculum. After leaving the Ministry of Culture, for some time he was the chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry. He left his post with a scandal after the Ministry of Culture issued a distribution certificate for the film "Matilda". Pozhigailo considered himself deceived. Apparently, he could have promised Natalia Poklonskaya that this would not happen?

In May, Dmitry Medvedev removed from his post the first deputy head of the Ministry of Culture Vladimir Aristarkhov, who since 2013 has been in charge of the Department of Museums and the Department of Science and Education. In 2017, Aristarkhov became the highest paid employee of the Ministry of Culture with an income of 142 million rubles.

Aristarkhov had a brother who owned the Restoration Workshops company. From 2014 to 2016, she signed contracts with the Ministry of Culture in the amount of 1.2 billion rubles. Should we be surprised at the wealth of Vladimir Aristarkhov? But according to his position, he was supposed to oversee the construction of the buildings of the Hermitage. Was that why I had to leave my post?

"Profitable" initiatives of Vladimir Medinsky?

It became known last week that the head of the Ministry of Culture wrote off 22 million rubles allocated for the Chechen blockbuster "Tosca". The film was never shot, and the money went to members of the board of trustees of the bankrupt "Chechenfilm" - Ramzan Kadyrov, State Duma deputy Joseph Kobzon and artist Zurab Tsereteli. Could something fall to Vladimir Medinsky?

After a check by the Prosecutor General's Office of the studios that had been allocated money for the production of films, it turned out that there are 21 film studios in the list of debtors of the Cinema Fund, and only 5 in the list of the Ministry of Culture. How can this be? Pavel Stepanov will have to deal with this.

Sergei Obryvalin may have to implement Medinsky's plans to reconstruct the museum of the Chersonesos-Tavrichesky reserve. Aristarkhov left, Pirumov was arrested, but life goes on.

It's even interesting how Pavel Stepanov will fit into Medinsky's entourage. Will it really take a "worthy" place among his deputies? Or will he try to change something? If Stepnova is planning the Presidential Administration for the post of Minister of Culture, then Vladimir Medinsky is better off packing his bags now. Then it may be too late.

https: //www.site/2018-01-18/na_post_vladimira_medinskogo_pretenduyut_tri_cheloveka

Struggle for the seat of "irritant minister"

Three people apply for the post of Vladimir Medinsky

Alexander Miridonov / Kommersant

Vladimir Medinsky is a minister whose position was the most precarious a few months before the government's resignation. The department is shaken by public scandals, and its head is now and then criticized from different sides. The site found out who claims to be Medinsky and whether the possible resignation of the minister will change anything in cultural policy.

The Cinema Owners Association has published open letter, in which he asks the Russian government to limit the powers of the Ministry of Culture. The letter harshly criticizes the activities of the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky and his department, which are postponing the premieres of foreign films for the sake of Russian cinema. Medinsky is also accused of censorship: the letter says that the standard service for issuing film distribution certificates has de facto turned into an instrument of state regulation and censoring of film distribution.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is asked to limit the possibilities of the Ministry of Culture for the administrative regulation of the industry, and the FAS is asked to assess the actions of the department, which the Association regards as direct interference in the activities of commercial companies.

It is known that the Ministry of Culture has postponed the screening in Russia of foreign films "The Adventures of Paddington-2" and "The Maze Runner: Cure for Death" to a later date. Perhaps this is due to the desire of the department to increase the collection of Russian films "Skif" and "Moving Up".

“We have to admit that this is not the first case of direct intervention of a state executive body in the economic activity of cinemas: such decisions were made when films such as Time of the First and Salyut-7 were released, as a result of which the release of one of the most successful paintings of 2017 was postponed six months later; the same decision was made during the release of The Dawns Here Are Quiet, as a result the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron was shifted a week earlier, etc. Such command-and-control actions of the Ministry of Culture not only cause economic damage directly to cinemas, but also to film distributors who bear the costs of promoting films on the scheduled dates, and, most importantly, Russian viewers who are forced to change their plans to visit cinemas and often return movie tickets already purchased ... We are sure that if the industry developed independently, without the intervention of the Ministry in the schedule of release dates for films in cinemas, without interfering with the policy of setting cinemas of a certain number of sessions, etc., then the results of the distribution of Russian films would be much higher!

We, the owners of cinemas, declare to the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation that it is not you, Mr. Minister, who are developing the film industry, not you who create successful Russian films, but talented Russian directors, actors, screenwriters, producers and members of film crews. It is not your merit in financing film production at the expense of the federal budget! .. We believe that your activity as Minister of Culture, unfortunately, harms the development of the Russian film industry ... We express our confidence that the practice of gross direct interference of state officials of the Ministry of Culture in the economic activities of commercial cinemas will be discontinued ", - reads the letter.

RIA Novosti news agency quotes Vladimir Medinki's response to distributors. The head of the Ministry of Culture said that the film collection in Russia over the past five years has grown from 35 to 54 billion rubles, and the production of cinema in the country has increased by 120%.

“I gave you the results of the work - not abstract reasoning and general words, I gave you numbers. The distributors operate with emotions. And I operate with numbers ... I always operate only with numbers, not abstract cries about censorship. We have no one to touch - everyone starts yelling about censorship, ”the agency quotes Medinsky.

Medinsky under attack

Over the past year, both Medinsky personally and his department have repeatedly come under attack from public criticism. Experts and interlocutors of the site, close to the ministry and related funds and agencies, note that such scandals reduce Medinsky's chances of being reappointed to his post in the new government, which will be convened after the inauguration of the president in May 2018.

twitter.com/ fedyukinstomat / GlobalLookPress

Another interlocutor, also close to the Ministry of Culture, says that the case of director Kirill Serebrennikov and his "Seventh Studio" dealt a strong blow to Medinsky. Serebrennikov and his colleagues are accused of embezzling government grants. One of those arrested in the case was the director of the Russian Academic Youth Theater Sophia Apfelbaum, who previously headed the department of state support for art and folk art of the Ministry of Culture, through which money was channeled for Serebrennikov's projects.

Not everything is all right with Medinsky in relations with cultural figures. The theatrical community has aroused rejection of Medinsky ever since the story of the opera Tannhäuser, when Orthodox extremists saw in it an insult to the feelings of believers, and the Minister of Culture took the position not of the theatrical community that supported the director Timofey Kulyabin, but of the Orthodox.

Another exacerbation a couple of years ago was associated with the formation of the expert council of the Golden Mask theater award. Then the composition of the expert council of the award was updated, it included a number of ultra-patriotic theater critics. The artistic director of the Gogol Center, Kirill Serebrennikov, then refused to participate in the upcoming Golden Mask. Prior to that, another famous director, Konstantin Bogomolov, also refused.

Medinsky also has a complicated relationship with the film community. So, at the end of 2014, Medinsky announced his refusal to provide state support to Vitaly Mansky's projects, including the Artdokfest festival. The reason, according to the minister, was that the director said "anti-state things." According to the official, "while I am the Minister of Culture, none of Mansky's projects will be supported, I will veto any decision of any expert councils of the Ministry of Culture." At the end of the same 2014, during a meeting with readers in the St. Petersburg bookstore "Bukvoyed", Medinsky said that he saw no point in state funding of documentaries for those who make films on the principle of "Rashka-shit". The unpretentious vocabulary of the "chief in culture" discouraged many creative figures. In early 2015, Medinsky managed to criticize Andrei Zvyagintsev's film Leviathan, which received a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. The minister did not pay attention to the success of the film, but said that "films that spit on the current government should not be funded by taxpayers."

But in 2017, questions to Medinsky appeared already from the “patriotic community”, as the minister defended the right to the creative position of director Alexei Uchitel, who shot the film “Matilda”. The “patriots” of Medinsky also make claims for state financing of the projects of the same Serebrennikov, who allows himself to argue about the policy of the authorities.

Finally, another important scandal associated with Medinsky is his doctoral dissertation. The Dissernet project sought to ensure that the dissertation was recognized as unscientific, and Medinsky was deprived of his academic degree. However, this was not done, although even the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission supported such a decision.

The information war around the Ministry of Culture is also going on in the anonymous Telegram channels that are fashionable in this political season.

The Zakuliska Telegram channel writes about the claims that have accumulated against Medinsky. In short, they look like this: lobbying the interests of Nikita Mikhalkov, criminal cases against the entourage (including Deputy Minister Grigory Pirumov, detained in the case of embezzlement at work on the restoration of cultural objects), lack of transparency in the allocation of grants, some of which are spent on the creation of products of frankly garbage quality, the activities of the Russian Military Historical Society for the splash of public spaces with monuments of controversial quality, etc.

The anonymous opponent of Zakuliska is the Kulturofobiya channel, in which, for example, it was argued that the deputy minister Pirumov, who was involved in corruption schemes, was never Medinsky's man and was simply imposed on him from outside.

If not Medinsky, then who?

The most influential figure in the sphere of culture in Russia for many years has been the director Nikita Mikhalkov, and Vladimir Medinsky is his creature, all insiders agree. Even if Medinsky leaves, there is a high probability that another “Mikhalkov’s man” will come to this post, so conceptual changes should not be expected.

By the way, the film "Moving Up", the distribution of which benefits from the transfer of foreign premieres, was filmed by Nikita Mikhalkov's studio TRITE.

An interlocutor close to the Ministry of Culture notes that two years ago they started talking: Vladimir Tolstoy, advisor to the president on cultural issues, and also deputy minister Alexander Zhuravsky are claiming the place of Medinsky, but the chances of keeping the post of the minister are good.

Presidential Advisor Vladimir Tolstoy is one of the main contenders for the post of Minister of Culture Press service of the President of the Russian Federation

“The Ministry of Culture is not the most monetary department in comparison with others, of course, therefore the struggle is going on without much heat. In any case, if the fight begins, all participants in russian tradition in the end they will give good places, even if not at the head of the department, "says one of the newspaper's co-chairmen.

Another of the candidates for the chair of the head of the Ministry of Culture, and just affiliated with Mikhalkov, the site's interlocutors call State Duma deputy Elena Yampolskaya.

The main problem of Medinsky's opponents is the lack of an agreement to resign with the director Nikita Mikhalkov, since he will defend his protégé. Another snag is the constant pressure on Medinsky in the public field. After all, President Vladimir Putin does not like to make decisions under such pressure and, on the contrary, often leaves controversial figures in his posts so as not to be led by the public.

The interlocutor, a website close to the Ministry of Culture, says that the very figure of a potential minister of culture does not really matter - it is important which lobbying group will manage to put their protégé, Mikhalkov, the presidential administration in this chair in May 2018 (in this case, we can expect another "Young technocrat") or the leadership of the State Duma.

If we talk about the ideological component, then for several years in the cultural field there has been a battle between "liberals" who support contemporary art, regardless of its controversy and the presence of a political component in performances, and "patriotic statesmen" who believe that art should be like can be more classical and carry to the masses a conservative state ideology. One can also note the ROSIZO project, which is supervised by a former TV presenter, ex-Deputy Minister of Culture, and previously coordinator of the "Young Guard United Russia»Ivan Demidov. His Foundation for the Development of Contemporary Art keeps aloof and holds exhibitions of contemporary Russian artists who are kept out of the political context.

There is no talk of a battle of ideological concepts, the source said, a site close to the leadership of the Ministry of Culture: “In modern realities, the question of concepts and ideology is not entirely correct. Everyone understands that the concept will be determined by the external agenda - who will the Orthodox activists oppose? Against whom will new criminal cases be opened? How will the cultural workers themselves behave? "

Absorber minister

Political scientist, associate professor of the Institute social sciences RANEPA Ekaterina Shulman notes that the position of Minister of Culture itself belongs to the class of "absorbers", that is, those who occupy it must attract public negativity and discontent, absorbing it around themselves and clearing the atmosphere for higher bosses.

“People-irritants are needed by the bureaucratic system. They produce harmless but exciting news and take on the function of collecting negativity that does not extend further to a higher level. There is a discussion of news stories of the level of “said”, “found out”, “stated”. Therefore, public scandals of this kind do not undermine the position of the head of the department. On the other hand, the Ministry of Culture is a serious resource institution that manages a lot of state money. As such, it is under permanent attack from various groups. The Serebrennikov case, the “restorers' case”, and many other invisible processes emerged. This is part of a big struggle for the resources of the Ministry of Culture. Each such collective protest is an element of the struggle for these resources, an instrument of influence, tested back in soviet times... At the same time, you never know when the scales will tilt and tilt in one direction or another, and invisible attacks will undermine the position of one or another boss. The pre-election period is a “golden time” for such attacks, since after the elections there will be a reformatting of the composition and, possibly, government structures and it will be possible to get rid of a number of figures. During such a period, such attacks increase in value, ”Shulman said.

Irina Buzhor / Kommersant

The head of the International Institute of Political Expertise Yevgeny Minchenko believes that Medinsky has a chance to remain in his current position, since the criticism addressed to him can be interpreted as a sign that he is doing everything right: he defends national cinema, adheres to the correct ideological positions, etc. .d.

“In any case, even if Medinsky leaves, then a person will come in his place who will occupy the same niche,” Minchenko notes.

Political scientist Andrei Kolyadin recalls that keeping this or that person in such a position is a personal volitional decision of several people. And he can be accepted by either Putin or Dmitry Medvedev, who has every chance of retaining the post of prime minister in the new government.

“In conditions when positions in the government are an element of trade between different parties, it would be possible to make forecasts, but in the current situation they are impossible,” summarizes Kolyadin.

Surrounded by Olga Golodets, the deputy prime minister in charge of culture and sports, the forthcoming resignation of the deputy ministers of culture, Alexander Zhuravsky and Vladimir Aristarkhov, was confirmed. The source of "Storm" claims that Aristarkhov himself wanted to change his field of activity. Zhuravsky will remain in the system of the Ministry of Culture.

Earlier, the interlocutors of "Shtorm", close to the leadership of the Ministry of Culture, said that before the reappointment of Medinsky, Golodets advocated for Zhuravsky to take the post of minister.

After Sergei Zhenovach was appointed artistic director of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, there were persistent rumors that Zhuravsky could be appointed director of the theater. To date, this option has been ruled out, since Zhenovach simultaneously holds two posts: artistic director and director.

Zhuravsky did not answer the call from "Storm", and Aristarkhov said that he was not authorized to comment on his own resignation. According to him, the minister himself must inform about this.

Nothing is known about who will replace Zhuravsky and become the new curator of the performing arts. It is argued that his position may be abolished altogether, and then the powers of the head of the department of state support for art and folk art, Andrei Malyshev, will significantly expand.

Olga Yarilova, who previously headed the department of tourism, is tipped for the post of Aristarkhov. Recently, her name surfaced in connection with the scandalous attempt to block the Booking.com service in Russia. It was Yarilova who reassured the public, saying that blocking the service is impossible and inexpedient, and sending the corresponding request to Rosturizm was a pure formality.

The most interesting is on our channel in Yandex.Zen

Aristarkhov has been working as First Deputy Minister of Culture since 2013, Zhuravsky took office in 2015.

Aristarkhov is called the most well-off employee of the Ministry of Culture. Shares in commercial companies brought him more than 142 million rubles last year. For comparison, the minister's income was only 8.7 million rubles.

Zhuravsky, on the other hand, was distinguished from other officials by experience of work in church structures (acting chairman for the canonization of the Kazan diocesan administration, vice-rector for academic affairs of the Kazan Theological Seminary) and the degree of Doctor of Theology.

Both deputies, along with their leader, have repeatedly become victims of attacks from their wards cultural environments and large intellectual clans. So, the scandalous rotation of experts of the "Golden Mask" in 2015 was associated with the name of Zhuravsky. Then among the selectors was the ultra-conservative theater critic Kapitolina Koksheneva, who began her work with a proposal to "stop giving prizes to the Sererennikovs."

The surname of Aristarkhov, in turn, signed a strange document that surfaced on the Internet on the eve of the St. Petersburg Cultural Forum in 2017 and contains a black list of cultural figures who were offered not to be invited to the event. The Ministry of Culture has denied the authenticity of the document many times, drawing attention to the fact that most of the people mentioned officially participate in the conference as speakers and moderators of the thematic sections. But the same film critic Andrei Plakhov, one of the defendants, still in a conversation with "Storm" insisted that "he is well acquainted with Aristarkhov" and that he "could well" have signed such a document. Despite the fact that Zhuravsky and Aristarkhov were in the strict sense only bureaucrats-executors, many perceived them as ideological and political companions of the minister. A negative attitude towards Medinsky was projected onto them as well.

Under Russian law, the prime minister must approve the candidates for deputy ministers.

MOSCOW, October 3 - RIA Novosti. Opinions on the controversial dissertation of the head of the Ministry of Culture, Vladimir Medinsky, are divided - not all experts agree that the work is unscientific.

Olga Vasilyeva, the head of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, in particular, emphasized the importance of the fact that there is no plagiarism in the dissertation, and speaking of Medinsky's view of history, she noted that scientific polemics are normal.

On Monday, the expert council of the Higher Attestation Commission (VAK) at a meeting recommended depriving Medinsky of his doctorate in historical sciences, the press service of the Ministry of Culture said.

At the same time, the department noted that this decision is intermediate, since "the last word remains with the presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission and the Ministry of Education." A RIA Novosti source said that the meeting of the presidium should take place on October 20. This information was later confirmed to RIA Novosti by one of the members of the VAK expert council, and Minister Vasilyeva said in an interview with RIA Novosti that the presidium would meet in the next two to three weeks.

As one of the members of the Expert Council, Oleg Budnitsky, told RIA Novosti on Tuesday, 17 out of 21 members of the Expert Council (VAK) on history and archeology voted in favor of depriving Medinsky of his doctoral degree, while not everyone read the controversial dissertation itself. The experts who voted for the deprivation of Medinsky's degree considered his work unscientific.

The beginning of the story

The discussion around Medinsky's work began after Ivan Babitsky, a member of the Dissernet community, submitted an application to the Ministry of Education and Science with a request to deprive the minister of his academic degree, claiming that his dissertation "Problems of Objectivity in Covering Russian History in the Second Half of the 15th-17th Centuries" has no scientific value ...

The materials were received by the Moscow State University dissertation council, which decided not to consider the scientific work of the minister in essence due to the absence of plagiarism. Babitsky demanded to recognize this decision as invalid. Later, the rector of Moscow State University Viktor Sadovnichy said that this dissertation council was closed.

Then the package of documents on Medinsky's dissertation entered the Belgorod State National Research University and was submitted for consideration to the Dissertation Council, which agreed with the decision to award him the degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences.

Commenting on the situation around his scientific work, Medinsky himself noted that his opponents could not find plagiarism in his dissertation, and the rest of the claims are related to the subjective perception of history.

No plagiarism

The head of the Ministry of Education and Science Olga Vasilyeva, commenting on the situation with the dissertation, recalled that earlier on the work of Medinsky, two dissertation councils had made positive decisions.

"And very important point - this is the absence of plagiarism in the work. Well, the fact that the author presented his vision of history is exactly the very polemical story that should be, "Vasilyeva told RIA Novosti.

Expert voting

One of the members of the expert council Marina Arzakyan told RIA Novosti that she had voted against the deprivation of the Minister of Culture of her doctoral degree, while admitting that she had not read Medinsky's dissertation.

According to her, the voting was open, while out of 21 scientists, only three voted against (Arzakyan herself, a representative of the RUDN University, Doctor of Historical Sciences Marina Moseikina and Deputy Chairman of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission, Dean of the Faculty of History and Philology of the Russian State University for the Humanities Pavel Shkarenkov).

The only abstaining was Pavel Uvarov, Chairman of the Expert Council - Chief Researcher of the Institute of General History, RAS Corresponding Member.

“I ended up in the minority - I voted against the applicant being deprived of his degree ... Personally, I was guided by the following argument: I represent the scientific specialty 03 (general history), while the dissertation under discussion was written in specialty 02 (national history). I have not read this dissertation myself, it is far from my scientific interests, and I did not consider myself entitled in such a situation to vote for depriving a person of his academic degree, "Arzakyan explained.

At the same time, the interlocutor of the agency noted that she does not condemn colleagues who voted for the deprivation of Medinsky's degree, suggesting that they probably had more grounds for this. The experts of the council made up a special commission (all of them had a scientific specialty 02) and prepared a report in which the arguments were given on which the head of the Ministry of Culture should have been deprived of his academic degree. All the participants of the meeting got acquainted with this document in advance, the interlocutor of the agency noted.

The final decision is for the Ministry of Education

Doctor of Historical Sciences Dmitry Bondarenko, an employee of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, also took part in the meeting of the Council of the Higher Attestation Commission and voted for the deprivation of Medinsky's degree. In his opinion, the presidium of the commission, the next meeting of which will be held on October 20, will make a final decision on the petition to deprive Vladimir Medinsky of the degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences.

Bondarenko said that, as a rule, the presidium agrees with the opinion of the expert council. But the option is not excluded in which the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission considers that Medinsky's degree must be confirmed or his dissertation should be sent for consideration to another dissertation council. At the same time, Bondarenko noted that even the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission is not the last instance, the final decision is made by the Ministry of Education and Science.

Commenting on the results of the vote, Bondarenko said that “no one doubted that the dissertation was bad, just a few people felt that there were no formal grounds for applying for the deprivation of an academic degree, and the rest said that they did exist.”

He noted that the experts who voted for the deprivation of Medinsky's degree considered his work not meeting the criteria of scientific character. Bondarenko added that the decision was also made on the basis of the principle of striving for the objectivity of knowledge - "on which historical science is always based."

“There were three representatives of the Minister of Culture Medinsky, who took the opportunity to speak. So the voting was democratic,” Bondarenko concluded.

Another member of the VAK expert council on history, Viktor Kondrashin, who voted for the deprivation of Medinsky's doctorate degree, said that he had made a decision, trusting the expert opinion of his colleagues - leading specialists in Russia on the topic of the minister's dissertation.

"Until the moment this expert opinion appeared, I adhered to the point of view that it is necessary to reject the application for deprivation of an academic degree, because in general there are a lot of weak works, work of an average level - I am not an expert, again, I judge purely by external signs ... such a conclusion, where everyone was placed (all dots) over i in all directions, it is simply difficult to make any other decision, "he said.

Kondrashin noted that there is no plagiarism (in Medinsky's work), but the scientific problem has not been solved, according to experts, and this is the basis for depriving an academic degree according to the current rules of the Higher Attestation Commission.

No politicization

As RIA Novosti explained to RIA Novosti, a member of the expert council from the Higher School of Economics, Doctor of Historical Sciences Oleg Budnitsky, the claims to the minister's work are that, in the opinion of those who voted for deprivation of the degree, Medinsky's research does not contain new scientific knowledge.

"It is characterized by logical inconsistencies and numerous factual errors. The research, in terms of its scientific level, does not meet the requirements for dissertations for the degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences," the scientist noted.

Budnitsky stressed that the claims against Medinsky's dissertation are purely professional, and urged not to politicize this story. Against the deprivation of a degree, according to him, purely formal arguments were given. "Mr. Medinsky is not the only one whom the expert council of the Higher Attestation Commission on History has recommended in my memory to be deprived of an academic degree," Budnitsky added.

No reason to resign

The Kremlin also commented on the situation. Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, suggested that there is no rule on the removal of a minister from office in case of deprivation of his academic degree.

"I cannot answer this question for you. I do not think that somewhere in some norms there is some kind of coordination of such matters, some kind of mutual connection," Peskov answered the journalists' question about whether they could remove Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky from his post, if a decision is made to deprive him of his doctoral degree.

"But, nevertheless, I just cannot answer this question now," he added.

At the same time, Peskov noted that the question of depriving the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky of the degree of Doctor of Science is not a reason for systemic changes in this area.