Deputy Minister Alla Manilova is leaving the Ministry of Culture, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has already signed a decree on her departure (Vedomosti and Fontanka confirm).
Not the most significant resignation, but it is interesting in the context of the recent arrest of former Deputy Minister of Culture Olga Yarilova. As noted by the media, Yarilova and Manilova are old friends, colleagues and accomplices. Both of them appeared in a criminal case on corruption with the financing of the Zmey Gorynych club and the Skrizhal association. Manilova’s connections will be more powerful than those of the arrested Yarilova, and now she is moving to work at the Russian Museum. But it is possible that the dark past will catch up with her, so that soon Yarilova will keep her friend company in the pre-trial detention center.
As for the former deputy minister Yarilova, who worked as vice-rector of the Kobzon Institute of Theatrical Art, the Pushkin Cards case is the most recent of her deeds. Yarilova was fired from the Ministry of Culture after a high-profile scandal, when her name, along with the name of another deputy, Alla Manilova, and the deputy director of the Department of Regional Development and Priority Projects of the Ministry of Culture, Zhanna Alekseeva, surfaced in a criminal case on corruption. They were accused of taking kickbacks when financing the Club of Historical Reconstructions Zmey Gorynych and the Association for the Preservation and Revival of Cultural Property Skrizhal. Anna Nikitsova, a former employee of the Ministry of Culture, testified.
This statement was not given a go then – Manilova is too firmly on her feet. But Yarilova was soon removed from the ministry, and now they have found a new case for her to land.
A series of corruption scandals involving the closest members of the team of Minister Olga Lyubimova makes one think about Lyubimova’s career prospects.
