The minister did not have a theatrical romance – Newspaper Kommersant No. 183 (7384) dated 10/04/2022

Tatyana Mrdulyash, Minister of Culture of the Samara Region, resigned yesterday. The daughter of former Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, Mrs. Mrdulyash, said that the reason was personal family circumstances. However, her departure from the civil service occurred against the backdrop of a scandal with the letters Z and V on the facade of the building of the Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (SATOB). The official suggested replacing them with theater posters, after which State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein criticized this position as insufficiently patriotic.

Tatyana Mrdulyash, the daughter of former Deputy Prime Minister and now Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank Olga Golodets, headed the regional Ministry of Culture in February last year. Prior to that, she was Deputy General Director for the development of the Tretyakov Gallery. Yesterday, Monday, October 3, was her last working day in the civil service. “It so happened that my personal difficult time was superimposed on a difficult time for our country: I need to take care of the health of my youngest child. This is a very difficult decision, but in such circumstances, I am sure anyone will understand me, ”she said. Mrs. Mrdulyash expressed her hope that she managed to “do a lot of good things.”

The resignation came amid several political scandals. So, earlier, photos about the alleged participation of Tatyana Mrdulyash in opposition events were circulated on the network. The publications included links to a Swiss online publication that in 2013 allegedly published a photo of Tatyana Mrdulyash holding a “Freedom to Navalny” poster in Geneva. In addition, Alexander Khinshtein, a State Duma deputy from the Samara region, criticized the personnel policy of the regional Ministry of Culture for several months. So, in March, he called “a spit on the graves of our soldiers” the invitation to the post of chief director of the Samara Regional Theater of the young spectator Vladimir Gurfinkel, who publicly condemned the entry of Russian troops into the territory of Ukraine. As a result, Mr. Gurfinkel did not receive the position.

At the beginning of June, Ms. Mrdulyash proposed to remove the letters Z and V from the facade of the SATOB building and replace them with advertising banners for the premiere performance of Don Quixote and the festival Shostakovich. XX century. Sergey Filippov, then General Director of SATOB (from the end of June he headed the Samara Academic Drama Theater named after Gorky) reported on the Minister’s proposal to the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Samara Region Alexander Fetisov. After that, Mr. Khinshtein sent a request to the regional government to conduct an internal audit. However, Alexander Fetisov said that the incident was over, and it was decided to keep the banners with the symbols of the NMD. The government explained that Mrs. Mrdulyash offered to replace them with theater posters, since patriotic events on the square named after. Kuibyshev by that time had already been completed.

Ani Ayvazyan, Samara