"Against the backdrop of suspicions"

Who and why refused to go to the Sergey Dovlatov festival in Pskov? Short

On the opening day of the Sergei Dovlatov festival, “Reserve” in Pskov, the Federal Press Agency issued a press release, which states that the head of the agency Mikhail Ceslavinsky refuses to participate in the festival “Against the backdrop of the involvement of the Governor of the Pskov Region Andrei Turchak to attack the journalist Oleg Kashin”. A few hours later, Seslavinsky partially denied his own statement, but even without it, many cultural figures announced a boycott to the festival because of Turchak. Medusa has prepared a brief retelling of the events of the last two weeks.

What is the festival? On September 17, the Cultural Festival of Sergei Dovlatov “Reserve” was opened in Pskov. It is organized by the administration of the Pskov region with the financial support of the Federal Ministry of Culture and the Great Lucy meat processing plant. According to Oleg Kashin and the newspaper Pskov Province , the governor of the region Andrei Turchak is the head of the organizing committee.

Dovlatov was not born in Pskov, the action of his books does not occur in this city, but his life is greatly connected with the region: in the Pushkin mountains near Pskov, he worked as a guide, and one of his most famous works - the “reserve” takes place here. It so happened that it was in Pskov that the only house-museum of the writer is located. In 2015, the local administration allocated funding for the festival of his name. The literary direction is supervised by the writer Viktor Erofeev, the poet Vera Polozkova, artist is controlled by the artist-galleryist Aidan Salakhova, film critic Andrei Plakhov is responsible for the cinema, and theater artist Pavel Kalevich-for the theater.

What does Kashin have to do with it? 11 days before the start of the festival, the journalist Oleg Kashin announced that the case of the attack on him had been disclosed and unequivocally hinted at involvement in the beating of the governor of the Pskov region Alexander Turchak. The same thing, only the wife of one of the suspects of complicity in beating, but neither Turchak nor the Kremlin is drawing attention to this , speaks this.

What did this led to?

The first to react by the editor -in -chief of the Russian Pioneer magazine Andrei Kolesnikov. Hecanceled the celebration of the birthday of the Russian Pioneer magazine at the festival. “The story with beaters and customers changes the matter ... I canceled all this. We cannot do that, ”he wrote.

Behind him, the poet Sergey Gandlevsky refused to participate from the festival, and on the way to the festival decided not to go to Pskov and the poet Polina Barskova. The festival, the poet Alexei Tsvetkov, traveling from America, flew to Moscow and explained that the Governor of the Pskov region “has nothing to do with the organization of the event and never had it, he doesn’t intend to appear on him, and he has no contact with him or his emissaries” - at least he said the curator of the poetic direction of Vera Polozkov. However, under the onslaught of commentators, Tsvetkov wrote in his Facebook in his Facebook: “Yes, you are right. I understood everything. I'm not going anywhere. Although it is possible that all this will come to me. I'm in Moscow. "

Director Konstantin Bogolomov, who, to the latter, was listed in the participants, said in the comments to one of the discussions that he had longrefused to visit the festival, is with touring in Korea and does not understand at all why he is still in lists.

Unable to withstand the revealing comments of colleagues, Andrei Plakhov, curator of the film management, also reported on Facebook. He did not cancel anything and went to the festival. He was supported by a literary critic Anna Narinskaya, who, although she refused, regrets it. “Because I know that it would be the right act to go just (because the listeners are not to blame for anything) and say before my speech that I think about the Turchak and the power in which such a Turchak is possible. But I have no moral forces for this, ”wrote Narinskaya.

And on the night of the opening of the festival, an official press release from the Federal Press Agency appeared . It says: “Against the backdrop of suspicions of the involvement of the Governor of the Pskov Region, Andrei Turchak, to attack the journalist Oleg Kashin, the head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications, Mikhail Seslavinsky, canceled the trip to the Pskov festival Sergey Dovlatov“ Reserve ”. However, a few hours later, Seslavinsky disowned the statement of the press service, saying that this statement “was incorrect and unsuccessful”.

Around the same time, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky confirmed on the website of the Ministry that he would visit the festival.