A "ministerial fall" is coming. The government is expecting a reshuffle

Deputy Minister of Culture will be Pavel Stepanov, who led the "Central Partnership". Stepanov can replace Medinsky at his post?

Pavel Stepanov, 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. Recently, the work of departments has been accompanied by scandals. Pavel Stepanov, according to information received by The Moscow Post from sources in the Presidential Administration, will become Vladimir Medinsky's successor.

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

Instead of a writer and PR specialist, a professional lawyer and manager may soon become the Minister of Culture, who may be able to take the Ministry of Culture to a completely different level. In 1994 -1999 Stepanov worked for Russian and foreign consulting companies. He is not a balabol, but a professional top manager. Which, probably, is what the Ministry of Culture needs today, mired in scandals with embezzlement 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 during the construction of buildings for the Hermitage.

It is high time to put things in order in the Ministry of Culture. Over the past year alone, the department has been shaken by several scandals related to cinema and theaters, which will be overseen 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, abuses of theater managers paying fees to themselves, the issuance of rental certificates and the situation with the film "Matilda", in which almost all of country.

All this indicates 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 creating 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 viability, he is also interested in financial condition. What he, perhaps, provides his position?

"Uncultured" Medinsky's deputies?

Vladimir Medinsky's deputies are simply 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 people led by Pirumov was implicated in the theft of funds in the amount of 100 million rubles. during the restoration of cultural heritage sites.

Instead of the 5 years that the prosecution asked for, 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 in 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.

In the same case, the ex-head of the property management department of the Ministry of Culture, Boris Mazo, who is on the run, was arrested in absentia. With him, the situation is more complicated. In order for him to tell something, he must first be caught. Recently, the court seized a residential building, an apartment and a land plot belonging to Boris Mazo. The theft case is still under investigation. And, perhaps, just in case, they prepared a replacement for Medinsky in the person of Stepanov. What if the Minister of Culture himself somehow emerges in the case?

Sergei Obryvalin, who oversaw the department before Pavel Stepanov, had nothing to do with culture at all until his appointment as deputy. did not have a minister. Obryvalin is known for his work at Aeroflot, where he managed 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 he became the deputy of Medinsky. Probably, Obryvalin could be an avid movie fan. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain his appointment to the post. Where are the sales and where is the cinema?

Sergei Obryvalin - not a rival to Pavel Stepanov?

Obryvalin became "famous" for putting his signature under the scandalous revocation of the rental certificate from the film "The 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.

Obryvalin is probably very close to Medinsky, as he defended his Ph.D. thesis on the topic "Evaluation of the quality of the functioning of radio navigation and radar facilities in the airport area under the influence of unintentional electromagnetic interference." In it, "Dissernet" found large-scale borrowings on 58 of the 122 pages analyzed. 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 got into the chair of the deputy minister. Probably, during his work as a parliamentarian, he acquired the cultural skills necessary for this.

Pozhigailo also advocated a ban on the film The Death of Stalin, and also suggested excluding Mikhail Bulgakov's 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 resigned with a scandal after the Ministry of Culture issued a rental certificate for the film "Matilda". Pozhigailo considered himself deceived. Apparently, he could have promised Natalya Poklonskaya that this would not happen?

In May, Dmitry Medvedev removed Vladimir Aristarkhov, First Deputy Head of the Ministry of Culture, who had overseen the activities of the Department of Museums and the Department of Science and Education since 2013, from his post. 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 in his position, he had to supervise the construction of the buildings of the Hermitage. Is that why you had to leave your post?

"Profitable" initiatives of Vladimir Medinsky?

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

After the Prosecutor General's Office checked the studios that were allocated money for making films, it turned out that there were 21 film studios on the list of debtors of the Cinema Fund, and only 5 on 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 for the reconstruction of the museum of the Chersonese-Tavrichesky reserve. Aristarkhov left, Pirumov was arrested, but life goes on.

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

The 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 resignations and what political bonuses will castling in the Cabinet of Ministers bring to the president before the elections? Details - in the material "FederalPress".

A ministerial fall is expected in Russia. There is no talk about 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 for 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.

Relegation 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 resignations. Some members of the government have become irritants to 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 great importance from a political point of view, but are unlikely to be reflected in the work of the government.

“The resignations certainly have a political meaning and a lot of them. A change in the direction of the government's work, although the Ministry of Finance is a key agency, should not be expected. At the same time, the Minister of Finance, who is the idol of our economic liberalism and the head of the Ministry of Culture, is also removed, the idol of Russian conservatism. People are being removed from both sides,” 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 different segments of the population associate economic problems in the country. But for his resignation, a strong-willed decision of the president is necessary, since the influence of the current finance minister is enormous. It is not easy to remove Siluanov from his post.

“From the 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 the Minister of Finance. People think that there is a bad Ministry of Finance, which collects taxes from everyone. And small business is dissatisfied, and pensioners complain. But Siluanov's influence is enormous and you can't remove him that easily. This should be the final decision of the president,” Zhuravlev summed up.

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 against Medinsky has been launched by a number of Kremlin players. Historian last week Pavel Aptekar citing his sources, he wrote in Vedomosti that Medinsky had “many opponents in the Kremlin” and was 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 depriving him of the title of Doctor of Historical Sciences.

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

Sources call the Minister of Construction and Housing and Public 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%. Also, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation 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.

At the same time, it is worth noting 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, reported that Mikhail Men was being considered as one of the main candidates to replace the governor of the Moscow Region, Andrei Vorobyov.

Resignations needed

The Kremlin needs the resignations of government members before the presidential elections. In the previous two presidential terms, Vladimir Putin fired prime ministers, but this time the 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 confidence. His position as prime minister is very strong. But a change of faces in the Cabinet is necessary for a more dynamic presidential campaign. Therefore, ministers will go under the knife.

Russian experts are unanimous in their opinion that the resignations of senior 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, according to the country's leading sociological agencies. So does the political scientist Abbas Gallyamov.

“Practically any personnel decisions will be perceived by voters now with satisfaction. The demand for renewal is growing stronger in society, and the appearance of new faces in the government corresponds to this request,” Gallyamov told FederalPress.

Medinsky

Deputy Minister of Culture will be Pavel Stepanov, who led the "Central Partnership". Stepanov can replace Medinsky at his post?

Pavel Stepanov, 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. Recently, the work of departments has been accompanied by scandals. Pavel Stepanov, according to information received by The Moscow Post from sources of the Presidential Administration, will become the successor Vladimir Medinsky .

"Uncultured" Medinsky's deputies?

Sergei Obryvalin - not a rival to Pavel Stepanov?

In May Dmitry Medvedev removed from his post the first deputy head of the Ministry of Culture Vladimir Aristarkhov, who since 2013 has supervised the activities 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.

"Profitable" initiatives of Vladimir Medinsky?

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

MOSCOW, May 18 - RIA Novosti. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a decree on the reappointment of Minister of Culture. Over the six years of leadership of the Ministry of Culture, Medinsky was able to increase the attendance of theaters, museums, philharmonic societies and the box office of Russian films, but he was remembered not only for this: he was not without corruption scandals, as well as friction with cultural figures, during which the minister sometimes allowed himself harsh statements.

Vladimir Medinsky was born in 1970 in the town of Smela, Cherkasy region, in the family of a Soviet army officer. The future minister spent his childhood in military garrisons, and in the early 80s his family settled in Moscow. In 1987, after graduating from school, Medinsky entered MGIMO at the Faculty of International Journalism. He studied excellently, received an increased (Leninist) scholarship, after graduating from the institute with honors, he entered graduate school. In 1997, he defended his first Ph.D. thesis on "The current stage of world development and the problems of shaping Russia's foreign policy."

In his post, Medinsky has repeatedly been included in the lists of the most mentioned ministers in the media. He was often called an "effective minister" - during his leadership, the abbreviation KPI (Key Performance Indicators), unusual for the creative sphere, gained weight.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, compared to 2012, visits to exhibitions in Russia increased by 41% - from 87 to 123 million visitors a year, and revenues more than doubled in five years - up to 10 billion rubles. It was under Medinsky that “blockbuster exhibitions” appeared in the Tretyakov Gallery, which were so popular that visitors were ready to break down the doors to the museum in order, for example, to see paintings by Valentin Serov. Theater attendance has also increased over the five years, albeit more modestly than in museums, by 14% to more than 38 million spectators.

Chief among the arts

Says what he thinks

Medinsky always defended his ideas very firmly and, in the heat of discussion, sometimes allowed himself harsh statements. For example, in 2014, at a meeting with St. Petersburg readers in a bookstore, he noted that he saw no reason to finance those filmmakers who make films “on the principle of “Rashka-shit”.

The official's lexicon angered social media users, journalists and parliamentarians. Medinsky apologized for his words, but did not renounce the meaning of the statement. "I just say what I think. Sometimes, probably, for an official - it's too much," the minister later admitted in an interview.

The minister was also remembered for his intolerance towards those who, one way or another, encroached on the inviolability of the country's history. In 2016, people who criticize the story of the feat of 28 Panfilov's men were awarded the title of "scum" from Medina. The director of the State Archives of Russia, Sergei Mironenko, also fell under the hot hand, who in June 2015 at the World Congress of Russian Press in Moscow for the first time called the feat of 28 Panfilov’s men a myth. In March 2016, he resigned, retaining his position as scientific director of the institution.

“My deepest conviction is that even if this story were invented from beginning to end, even if there was no Panfilov, even if there was nothing, this is a holy legend that simply cannot be touched,” the minister said. argued his words.

A series of scandals

During the work of Medinsky as Minister of Culture, there were not without high-profile scandals. Some of them sounded the concept of censorship. Thus, in April 2015, the prosecutor's office opened administrative cases in connection with the "desecration of objects of religious veneration" against the director of "Tannhäuser" Timofey Kulyabin and the director of the theater Boris Mezdrich, who allowed the opera to be shown at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. As a result, Mezdrich was fired from his position. At the same time, the minister personally emphasized that the management of the theater is traditionally responsible for the repertoire policy.

“I want to remind you that we have neither censorship nor any kind of “departmental” previews,” Medinsky said.

Two years later, the artistic director of the Satyricon Theater, Konstantin Raikin, delivered a speech about "aggressive raids on artistic statements" and "censorship of the crowd", causing heated controversy among colleagues. Medinsky rejected Raikin's accusations and suggested that completely different pitfalls lie behind the alleged disputes about censorship.

The minister continued to defend his position in the case of Alexei Uchitel's film Matilda, which was attacked by State Duma deputy Natalia Poklonskaya. Medinsky urged not to indulge "irresponsible hysteria" and called the attempts to ban the film "lawlessness and censorship." At the same time, Medinsky preferred not to comment on the case of the film by British director Armando Iannucci, whose distribution certificate was revoked due to public outrage over the ambiguity of the topic.

Theft of funds

Several serious proceedings during the leadership of Medinsky were connected with the theft of budget funds. In March 2016, the FSB announced the initiation of a case against several senior officials of the Ministry of Culture and entrepreneurs. They were suspected of embezzlement of budgetary funds allocated by the state for the restoration of cultural heritage sites, in particular, the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow. Deputy Minister Grigory Pirumov turned out to be the key figure in this case, and Boris Mazo, head of the property management department of the Ministry of Culture, was also arrested.

Medinsky admitted that everyone in the Ministry of Culture was shocked by the situation - the very next day, the ministry initiated inspections of those monuments where restoration work was underway, and some time later completely reorganized the work of the department. The minister was recognized as not involved in the case, but some officials believed that after such a scandal he should have resigned.

At the same time, in the most discussed case of last year - the case of the Seventh Studio, the defendants of which were also accused of embezzlement of state funds - the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation was recognized as the injured party. As part of the criminal case, a claim was filed for damages in the amount of more than 133 million rubles.

Controversial dissertation

As a minister, Medinsky paid much attention to national history. At the same time, his views on history have been repeatedly criticized for their unscientific nature, errors and contradictions.

In 1999, Medinsky defended his third thesis on "Problems of objectivity in the coverage of Russian history in the second half of the 15th-17th centuries" and became a doctor of historical sciences. In 2017, a real scandal erupted in the scientific community related to this work.

A member of the Dissernet community, philologist Ivan Babitsky publicly questioned the scientific value of labor. This is the first case when they wanted to consider a dissertation not for plagiarism, but specifically for the quality of the scientific work carried out and the validity of obtaining a degree. The work of the minister was considered by two dissertation councils - Moscow State University and Belgorod University, both recognized the claims against Medinsky as unmotivated. Despite the dissatisfaction of the expert council of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC), the presidium of the HAC in October 2017 still recommended to the Ministry of Education and Science not to deprive Medinsky of his degree.

Also, before coming to the post of minister, Medinsky published a series of books "Myths about Russia". According to the author, his task was to debunk negative myths about Russia and offer a new perspective on the history of the Russian state. Medinsky also wrote the adventure historical novel The Wall, based on which Dmitry Meskhiev made a feature film of the same name in 2016. The Ministry of Culture did not take part in financing the film.

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.

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

On Monday, the expert council of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC) at a meeting recommended depriving Medinsky of the degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences, the press service of the Ministry of Culture reported.

At the same time, the department noted that this decision is intermediate, since "the final 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 was to be held 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 Oleg Budnitsky, one of the members of the Expert Council, 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 depriving Medinsky of his 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, filed an application with the Ministry of Education and Science with a request to deprive the minister of his academic degree, arguing that his thesis "Problems of objectivity in covering Russian history in the second half of the 15th-17th centuries" has no scientific value. .

The materials were submitted to the Moscow State University Discussion Council, which decided not to consider the scientific work of the minister on the merits due to the absence of plagiarism. Babitsky demanded that this decision be declared invalid. Later, the rector of Moscow State University, Viktor Sadovnichy, announced that this dissenting council was closed.

Then the package of documents on Medinsky's dissertation was submitted to 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 to the media, 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 positive decisions had been made on the work of Medinsky by two dissertation councils.

“And another very important point is the absence of plagiarism in the work. Well, the fact that the author presented his vision of history is already exactly the same polemical story that should be,” Vasilyeva told RIA Novosti.

Expert voting

Marina Arzakyan, one of the members of the expert council, told RIA Novosti that she voted against depriving 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, Marina Moseykina, a representative of the RUDN University, Doctor of Historical Sciences, and Pavel Shkarenkov, 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).

The only abstention was the chairman of the expert council, the chief researcher of the Institute of World History, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Pavel Uvarov.

"I was in the minority - I voted against the applicant being deprived of a 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 the specialty 02 (domestic history). I I didn’t read this dissertation myself, it is far from my scientific interests, and I didn’t consider myself entitled in such a situation to vote for depriving a person of a scientific degree, ”explained Arzakyan.

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

The final decision is up to the Ministry of Education and Science

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 depriving Medinsky of his degree. In his opinion, the presidium of the commission, whose next meeting will be held on October 20, will make a final decision on the application 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 ruled out, in which the presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission considers that Medinsky's scientific 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 final authority, 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 thought that there were no formal grounds for applying for the deprivation of a degree, and the rest said that they still 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 vote was democratic," Bondarenko concluded.

Viktor Kondrashin, another member of the VAK's expert council on history, who voted to strip Medinsky of his Ph.D.

“Until this expert opinion appeared, I was of the opinion that it was necessary to reject the application for the deprivation of an academic degree, because in general there are a lot of weak works, work of an average level - I am not a specialist, again, I judge purely by external signs ... After such a conclusion, where everyone was dotted (all points) 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 a degree according to the current rules of the Higher Attestation Commission.

Without politicization

As Oleg Budnitsky, a member of the expert council from the Higher School of Economics, Doctor of Historical Sciences, explained to RIA Novosti, the complaints about the work of the minister are that, according to 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. According to its scientific level, the study 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 the 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, in my memory, recommended to deprive of a degree," Budnitsky added.

No reason to resign

The Kremlin also commented on the situation. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov suggested that there is no rule on the removal of a minister from his post in case of deprivation of his academic degree.

“I can’t answer this question for you. I don’t think that somewhere in some norms there is some kind of linkage of such matters, some kind of mutual connection,” Peskov answered the question of journalists about whether they can 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 can’t answer this question right now,” he added.

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