| The Cabinet of Ministers staged a cultural revolution This was the most exciting meeting in the ten months of the quiet existence of Mikhail Fradkov’s cabinet. It turned out that there are problems that are really of interest to literally all of our ministers: the content of television shows and books, “the hundred-headed hydra of the Internet, which is getting out of control” (the expression of the Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov), pirated discs and the division of ownership of cultural monuments.
“Whoever forbids showing Petrosyan should be forbidden to watch football”—the approaches of the majority of cabinet ministers to the formation of the main directions in the field of culture and mass communications turned out to be directly opposite to what the head of the relevant ministry, Alexander Sokolov, proposed at yesterday’s government meeting. Although, in essence, there was nothing to contradict. Since the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications did not present any main directions to the government.
Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov was forced to directly state this, summing up the results of the meeting: “Our protocol decision states that by June 1, 2005, the ministry must present the main directions of state policy, which confirms the absence of them today.” And in general, yesterday the prime minister did something that he had previously avoided in every possible way - he revealed to the public the weakness of one of his departments. And apparently, he did this quite deliberately, in order to bring the leaders of the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications to their senses. The prime minister emphasized that he has every reason to do so: in nine months of work, the cultural department has not deigned to carry out a single instruction from the president and the government. And yesterday they were unable to present either directions, an action plan, or draft legislative and regulatory acts for consideration at a cabinet meeting. “We debated until the last moment whether to raise or postpone this issue,” admitted Mr. Fradkov. “And we realized that we couldn’t avoid open discussion any longer.”
The open discussion was indeed a success. She did not leave a single significant minister silently indifferent, from the head of the financial department to the defense department. But the main opponent of the “cultural” minister was the “extraordinary” minister. Sergei Shoigu, after Mr. Sokolov’s lengthy report, immediately rushed into battle: “I still don’t understand what the main directions of cultural development are?” “Targeting of cultural services, improvement of legislation...” - Mr. Sokolov began to list. “These are regulations about the ministry. For this you are paid the sovereign’s salary,” the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations retorted. But the Minister of Culture did not even think of being embarrassed: “A lot of what I’m talking about is being done for the first time, for example, we are developing a law on patronage. And we also instructed RIA to prepare a concept for changing the image of Russia abroad...” “No, you tell us what laws need to be adopted, we will vote for them with both hands and feet,” Mr. Shoigu stubbornly refused to listen talk about “an order to prepare a concept for changing the image.”
Mr. Sokolov also persisted: they say, you will first approve of our approaches in general, and then next year we will introduce ten laws to the government. “You say new laws need to be adopted. Where are they? Twelve resolutions. Where are they? Let's make a plan, a schedule and we will consider them here. Instead, I read about the postmodern period in your report. We, after all, are a government, not a philharmonic society,” the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations concluded his oral review of the speech of Sokolov’s colleague.
“I will try to help you, Alexander Sergeevich,” Mr. Fradkov insistently intervened, “in a good sense, as a prime minister, more than Sergei Shoigu.” Once again making it clear that the ministry itself is largely to blame for such a surge in criticism, he nevertheless called on the cabinet members to “move to constructiveness.”
“What do we have with the State Prizes (meaning they were awarded in 2005 - Ed. )?" - Perhaps one of the most delicate ministers - the head of the government apparatus Sergei Naryshkin - unexpectedly entered the discussion. “Unfortunately, we were unable to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance in time. But it’s not even about the money,” said Mr. Sokolov. “It’s about making cultural figures feel the government’s care.” At this point, even the prime minister could not stand it: “The government showed attention at the beginning of 2004 and took care of providing bonuses. And you showed disorganization and lack of discipline.” “Take the reins firmly and start managing,” he advised Mr. Sokolov.
The design obviously didn't work out. Neither from ministers, nor from invited representatives of culture and the media. They all united under one slogan: “How long?!”
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov called for “stopping the debilitation of the population” by showing “vulgarity like Full House” on television. “Full house” is crazy money,” responded Mr. Sokolov. But Minister Ivanov did not let up. He proposed clearing all libraries of printed rubbish. And he told his office comrades a heartbreaking story about how two soldiers had recently seized weapons, deserted from their unit and killed two policemen. “We looked in the library at what they were reading. The latest book is “Kill a Cop.” They finished reading it and left,” said Mr. Ivanov. And then the Minister of Defense unexpectedly decided to confess. It turned out that he did not know “a single contemporary Russian writer who would be worth reading.” Evil tongues say that Mr. Ivanov, apparently, something happened to his memory or his taste changed dramatically. After all, not so long ago he was spotted at the presentation of one of the books by Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, who is certainly a contemporary of the Minister of Defense.
Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeev was perhaps the only one who strongly supported the Minister of Culture. Although, perhaps, more so that there would be a reason to argue with representatives of the economic bloc of the cabinet that he did not like. They say that Mr. Sokolov has a high understanding of the problems. Not like those colleagues “who, as soon as they hear the word “village,” immediately reach for a revolver.”
Ministers of Finance Alexei Kudrin and Economic Development German Gref ignored the agrarian minister’s heel. But the cultural department tried to present its contribution to criticism according to all the rules of apparatus art. Mr. Kudrin casually reported that the Ministry of Culture was unable to complete the simplest bureaucratic task - to prepare documents on time. “There are only five points in the protocol decision,” he began and faltered, “oh, I feel like this is a different protocol. I have the one I received last night at seven o'clock. A? Is there a new one this morning? Well then, I have no comments.”
Mr. Gref also tried to avoid personal criticism of the leadership of the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications. Although he could, since it was he, not at all in his position, who recently had to settle a scandal with representatives of the Union of Theater Workers, which arose due to the “disorganization” of the Minister of Culture. They say Mr. Gref was very unhappy with this. But yesterday Mr. Gref decided to stand up for culture and the media as a true liberal, without settling any scores with anyone.
He warned cabinet ministers against attempts to impose censorship. And he boldly proclaimed the main direction of state policy in the field of culture and mass communications. “The main principle is freedom. You can’t strangle her,” said Mr. Gref. He also warned his colleagues against making simple decisions. “Someone doesn’t like Petrosyan. And I don't like football. So I propose to ban football,” the minister explained the harmful consequences of taste. In addition, Mr. Gref proposed creating a TV channel about Russia in English, following the example of China. In turn, the Minister of Culture also spoke out against censorship in the media and promised a new law on media in 2005.
There were other interesting proposals. The newly appointed head of the Duma Committee on Culture, singer and composer Alexander Rosenbaum, in order to combat piracy, proposed closing the capital's Gorbushka. And the capital's mayor Luzhkov, in order to obtain federal cultural monuments into municipal ownership, took the initiative to introduce criminal liability for poor maintenance of these very monuments.
No specific decisions were made at the government meeting. Vera KUZNETSOVA |
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