Minister of Culture Lyubimova at the Duma hearings was reproached for lack of will

On Wednesday, the Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova visited the State Duma as part of the Government Hour. The event, which the correspondent of “MK” saw on the TV screen installed in the press room of the parliament, stretched for 2.5 hours. Much was said about the annexed territories, a little less about the “dissenters” and very little about the pressing problems of cultural workers.

The leitmotif of the minister’s speech: residents of the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions should feel part of a single cultural space. “We will continue to work together so that people feel as one with the whole country,” Lyubimova said. She named the number of cultural workers who work in the two republics and regions – 26 thousand people.

“In the new territories, cinema halls are operating, the repertoire of which does not differ from Russian ones,” said Lyubimova. True, we are hardly talking about new releases and Hollywood films – the audience (where cinemas can, in principle, work) has access only to domestic film classics. But it’s better than nothing.

The head of the Ministry of Culture also spoke about the large-scale touring work, when groups from the Donbass perform in the cities of mainland Russia, and how Rosconcert forms propaganda teams consisting of artists from federal groups, active and talented creative youth (for performances in front of soldiers of the Northern Military District and the wounded in hospitals, seems to be). That is, two vectors have been outlined for cultural exchange: “there” and “back”.

The Ukrainian theme arose more than once or twice during the government hour. So, a deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation from the Saratov region, Olga Alimova, complained: they say, not only in Ukraine, Bandera and other extremists are dismantling monuments to the Red Army, Lenin and Pushkin, right next to us, in her small homeland, they destroyed a monument to the times of the Second World War “under the guise of reconstruction.”

Answering Alimova, Olga Lyubimova assured that the department was ready to get involved in the mentioned object and allocate funds to save the monument.

“As soon as the weather conditions allow,” the Duma speaker added and unexpectedly spoke out in defense of the sculptures of the founder of the USSR. Volodin suggested that the deputies not overload the Ministry of Culture with unnecessary tasks and “take patronage over the monuments to Lenin in the regions.” He stressed that United Russia is a party that opposes the ideology of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, but by no means in matters of preserving the memory of Vladimir Ilyich.

Unfortunately, some equally pressing questions remain unanswered.

For example, the head of the Ministry of Culture was clearly asked how much the salary of cultural workers would increase in 2023, taking into account the projected inflation of 12.5%. And although Volodin, it would seem, left no room for maneuver for the minister, saying specifically that “all colleagues want to hear about salaries,” the minister was not ready to give any numbers. “It’s hard for me to judge by salary now” …

Lyubimova also vaguely commented on the words of Anton Tkachev, a deputy from the New People party, that Russia does not need to follow the Ukrainian path and draw up lists of “undesirable cultural figures”:

“We definitely don’t need to follow the example of Ukraine and ban Russian artists in public places, on television, on radio. Moreover, our president called the detention of a man for listening to Ukrainian music in the car absurd. Can you confirm that such bans are not expected in our country and artists can exhale and continue to be creative?

Lyubimova either did not understand this speech, or pretended not to understand it. “Particular attention should be paid to the quality of the content so as not to offend anyone, not to offend anyone.”

But the chairman of the lower house of parliament understood everything very well. This can be seen from the quote that is worth quoting here:

– Actors and creative people – creativity. Politics for politicians. And when they start playing politics at creative venues, this is unacceptable. Conditions are created for everyone, but if you work in the theater, make films, think about the country and work in its interests. Otherwise, it turns out that the state is being destroyed with budget money, insulting those who are now dying for the safety of our citizens. And you, Olga Borisovna, must understand this. This is the position of Parliament, proceed from it. But not like this: everyone should be fine … And let’s not talk about the fact that we should not, as in Ukraine, should not, as in America, in parliament. No one will finance destructive actions. If you, Olga Borisovna, do not have enough will to do this, come, we will always support you. Everything else is an attempt at justification.