Music of the highest spheres

Vladimir Putin awarded the cellist Sergei Roldugin, the artistic director of the St. Petersburg House of Music, the Order of Alexander Nevsky. The corresponding decree is published on the official portal of legal information. As stated in the document, the reward of Roldugin was awarded "for special merits in the preparation and conduct of important humanitarian foreign policy actions that contribute to the strengthening of peace and friendship between peoples."

With the same wording, the Order of Alexander Nevsky was awarded to conductor Valery Gergiev, Khudruk and director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.

For the same “merits”, the Director General of the Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky was awarded the Order of Friendship, and several dozen employees of the Mariinsky Theater - the medal of the Order “For Merits to the Fatherland” of the II degree.

In addition, the Chairman of the Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin was awarded the Order for Merit to the Fatherland of the IV degree for great contribution to the development of constitutional justice ", Minister of Development of the Far East Alexander Galushka - the Order of the Honor" For great contribution to the socio -economic development of the Far East and the Baikal region ", and oligarch Oleg Deripaska - the distinction of" For the Benefit " With the wording "For great contribution to charitable and social activities."

On May 5, in the amphitheater of the Syrian late -ant city of Palmyra, which a month before that was repulsed by the troops of the dictator Bashar al -Assad near the Islamic State, a concert of the Mariinsky Theater orchestra under the direction of Gergiev was held . Roldugin also took part in the concert, and Piotrovsky was among the audience of the event. Before starting the speeches, Putin turned to the audience on the video.

Roldugin and Gergiev are Putin's personal friends, and Roldugin knows Putin from childhood. As it turned out from the documents of the Panama archive published in April, Roldugin owns several offshore firms that have a multi -billion dollar circulation from financial fraud. These firms withdrew the funds of Russian companies, as well as the money stolen by the defendants in Magnitsky’s case from the Russian budget. At the same time, it was argued that Roldugin is only the guardian of other people's money.