Alla Maninova left the Ministry of Culture, but has not yet come to the Russian Museum

Long ministerial castling

Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin signed an order on the resignation of the State Secretary of the Deputy Minister of Culture Alla Manilova. The post will be taken by Nadezhda Reverend, who came to the cultural department to take the place of Olga Yarilova, who wrote a letter of resignation of her own free will in the fall, and is now under arrest in connection with an investigation into fraud around the Pushkin Map. A new deputy minister also appeared in the Ministry of Culture – Andrei Malyshev, who previously headed Rosconcert. How bizarrely the personnel deck is shuffled, MK understood.

The fact that Alla Manilova should leave the Ministry of Culture has been talked about for a long time. So the intrigue is not in the very fact of the resignation, but in the fact that it stretched out for months. It was expected that in February she would leave for St. Petersburg and head the Russian Museum, whose former director Vladimir Gusev had already left for the honorary post of president. The strange thing is that the order to appoint Manilova to the post of director of the State Russian Museum has not yet been signed. Although, as sources in museum circles told MK, they verbally confirmed to the Russian Museum that the new boss should be expected just about – almost the first train the lady is going to rush to the Northern capital. But the train is delayed. They say that the hitch is due to the fact that Manilova wanted to leave her man instead of herself.

Andrey Malyshev, who since 2018 has headed the Rosconcert, became this person. For the Ministry of Culture, however, he is not a new figure. Before becoming the general director of the federal touring and concert center, through which over 500 project projects are implemented annually, Malyshev worked precisely in the Ministry of Culture – under the wing of ex-Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky. But he held a smaller position – director of the Department of State Support for Art and Folk Art. That is, in the division of Alla Yurievna. And now she left the household for her “chick”.

Further – how to put the question: when will the ministerial lady move to her native city, if she does move anyway? The fact is that in parallel with these personnel changes, a criminal case is unfolding around the Pushkin Map, where among the suspects is Olga Yarilova, a colleague and friend of Manilova. Some sources close to law enforcement agencies have previously reported that Yarilova began to testify, and they include the name of Manilova – as one of the figures in the large-scale fraud case, which the Investigative Committee is investigating jointly with the FSB. However, Manilova has another friend – Valentina Matvienko, who, it seems, will make every effort not to give her offense.

And yet, the contract for the director’s chair of the Russian Museum has not yet been signed. So, who knows, surprises are still possible. One thing is for sure – never before in history has there been such a long transition from one position to another in high cultural circles. Yes, there have been recent high-profile reshuffles, but they, on the contrary, were swift. The contract with Zelfira Tregulova ended and the very next day we know the name of the new director of the Tretyakov Gallery – Elena Pronicheva, who was just represented by Manilova. Marina Loshak’s contract ended and she, right on time, wrote a letter of resignation, and her place was immediately given to a new director – Elizaveta Likhacheva. The list goes on, there have been enough rearrangements lately, but none of them lasted for months. Alla Manilova is in a special position here too.