Sergei Sobyanin approved the composition of the Moscow government with minimal changes
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On Wednesday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin signed a number of documents that approved the composition of the capital’s government. The previous composition, in accordance with the law, resigned after Mr. Sobyanin was re-elected to the position of mayor during the Unified Voting Day on September 8–10 and took office. Basically, the composition of the Moscow mayor’s team has not undergone significant changes. The main one of the few personnel news was the replacement of the head of the department of culture, Alexander Kibovsky, who held this position since 2015, with Alexey Fursin, who previously headed the department of entrepreneurship and innovative development. He will, in particular, be involved in the development of an ambitious project – a film cluster with studios with a total area of 300 thousand square meters. m, which the city hall has already compared to Hollywood and Bollywood. In addition to the Department of Culture, the reshuffle also affected the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Capital Repairs and the North-Eastern Administrative District.
The decision to dismiss Alexander Kibovsky is stated in the decree of the capital’s mayor No. 83. This document became part of a package of several decrees and orders with which Sergei Sobyanin, after his re-election to the position of mayor of Moscow, appointed members of his government and deputies. The reasons for Mr. Kibovsky’s dismissal from office are not stated in the document.
Alexander Kibovsky was appointed head of the Moscow Department of Culture in 2015. A graduate of the Moscow State Institute of History and Archives with a degree in museum studies, he came there from the post of head of the Moscow City Heritage Institute (in 2008–2010, the official also headed Rosokhrankultura). At his previous post, he was described as an energetic administrator who was able to significantly increase the number of restored buildings in the city, but allowed the demolition of a number of iconic historical buildings. The capital’s museums and theaters welcomed the appointment in 2015 (see “Kommersant” dated March 11, 2015).
Mr. Kibovsky replaced Sergei Kapkov in the Department of Culture, who, in three years of work, as experts stated in an interview with Kommersant, “managed to change the face of Moscow” – in this vein, Mr. Kapkov was characterized, for example, by Zelfira Tregulova, who at that time held the post of director Tretyakov Gallery. Following the results of the work, Sergei Sobyanin announced gratitude to Mr. Kapkov for his services in reorganizing the parks and “bringing a new style” to their work. The State Duma, in turn, expressed the hope that Alexander Kibovsky would “multiply Kapkov’s positive legacy,” at the same time displacing the “PR, hipster flair” of his predecessor. In Moscow, part of the public in the first months after the appointment of Alexander Kibovsky regretted the departure of Mr. Kapkov. However, among those who supported Mr. Kibovsky was Kirill Serebrennikov. To those who were then afraid of a “freeze” in Moscow cultural life, the director objected that Mr. Kapkov had been replaced by “a fairly young man, an intellectual”: “It seems to me that Kibovsky has his own vision of how the city’s culture should develop.”
Mr. Kibovsky was reproached for a long series of high-profile resignations and appointments in institutions subordinate to the department – for example, the dismissal in 2016 of the director of the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve Natalya Samoilenko, in 2019 – of Alina Saprykina from the Museum of Moscow, in 2020 – of a replacement, after a series of conflicts, the leadership of the Musical Theater named after. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. Other decisions, however, were perceived calmly or even favorably. Alexander Kibovsky himself stated that he considers the policy of appointing leaders based on acquaintances – according to the principle “who knows whom, has been friends, served with whom” – to be incorrect. In the end, many of those who initially criticized him began to sympathize with him. And in 2022, the logic of resignations and appointments, including in cultural institutions, became so radically different that the Moscow Department of Culture ceased to be a place where it made sense to address complaints.
Summing up the results of his work as head of the department, Mr. Kibovsky told Kommersant that the department “managed to make culture closer to Muscovites.”
In addition, the official assured that “art has become more accessible not only to a wide audience, but also to young talents.” “But time poses new challenges, and today it is fundamentally important to bring Moscow’s culture to a new level. The time has come to create world-class creative industries. To solve such serious problems, it is necessary to involve specialists in related fields, combining cultural traditions and modern creative solutions,” said Mr. Kibovsky.
His successor, 49-year-old Alexey Fursin, graduated from the State University of Land Management, studied at the Academy of Civil Service, worked at the State Committee for Land, the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services, Construction and Land Policy and the Ministry of Property of the Russian Federation, and moved to the Moscow government in 2016. Then he became the first deputy head of the Moscow Department of Science, Entrepreneurship and Industrial Policy, a year later he headed this department, and in 2018 he became the head of the capital’s Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development.
Mr. Fursin himself stated that over the past three years, his department has “systematically developed the creative business” in Moscow, having come “a long way from defining the concept of creative industries to recognizing Moscow products in this area at the international level.” “Today, even under sanctions, creative content from the Russian capital, such as cinema, animation, art, fashion, e-sports and much more, is in demand all over the world,” he added. According to Mr. Fursin, Moscow “is on the verge of launching large-scale international projects in the field of modern culture,” mentioning “a world-class film cluster being created.”
We are talking about studio spaces with a total area of 300 thousand square meters. m., which are being built at the film studio. Gorky and the territory of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering on Ryazansky Prospekt. In July 2023, Mr. Sobyanin assured that thanks to the creation of this film cluster, a platform competitive with Hollywood and Bollywood will appear in Moscow. Mr. Kibovsky, in turn, said that he worked with Alexei Fursin on several projects, including “to develop the film industry in the city,” praising his replacement for “systematicism, professionalism, broad outlook and readiness for new challenges.”
The new head of the Moscow Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development is 35-year-old Kristina Kostroma, who has been Mr. Fursin’s first deputy since 2019.
Let us note that the decree on the dismissal of Alexander Kibovsky also refers to the resignation of Alexei Belyaev from the post of prefect of the North-Eastern Administrative District of Moscow. Mr. Belyaev will now head the department of capital repairs, the former head of which, Alexey Eliseev, was relieved of his duties and dismissed by mayoral order No. 569 with the wording “on his own initiative.” The same order with the same wording also dismissed Anton Kulbachevsky, who had headed the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection since 2010. Yulia Urozhaeva, who until today worked as deputy head of the Main Control Directorate of Moscow Evgeniy Danchikov, was appointed in his place. This is the only reshuffle in the capital’s mayor’s team for now.
In addition to Sergei Sobyanin’s personnel decrees, two resolutions of the Moscow government were issued on Wednesday on improving the structure of executive authorities and optimizing some of them. Thus, the Department of Natural Resources will lose several powers at once. In particular, management of some specially protected natural areas (SPNA) is transferred to the department of culture, department of housing and communal services and prefectures. Among the transferred territories, in particular, the adjacent green zones to the Izmailovsky and Lianozovsky parks, to the Tsaritsyno and Kuskovo estates, as well as the protected areas Serebryany Bor, Ostankino, Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo and Bitsevsky Forest.
Also, the State Budgetary Institution Mospriroda, which manages protected areas and other green areas of the capital, will come under the jurisdiction of the Department of Culture. The main functions of Mospriroda will not change, the resolution says. The authority to approve the boundaries of protected areas in Moscow is transferred to the Moskomarkhitektura, and the department of capital repairs is given the functions of ensuring the planting of green spaces. In addition, Sergei Sobyanin abolished Moskomstroyinvest (the committee to ensure the implementation of investment projects in construction and control in the field of shared construction). Its functions are transferred to the Moskomarkhitektura, Moskomstroynadzor, departments of construction and urban planning policy.
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