RF Minister for Culture Suggests Privatizing of Culture Monuments

The difference between allocations to the culture needs was enormous in different parts of the country
Russian Federation Minister for Culture Mikhail Shvydkoi thinks that the government should allow privatizing of culture monuments. Interfax reports that the idea was voiced at a session of the Russian Council of the State held in St.Petersburg on June 16.

"We must overcome all the collisions between the federal center and Russian regions. It is necessary to cancel an amendment to the law on monument protection and allow regular privatization of monuments regardless of their levels and protection," the minister says.

Mikhail Shvydkoi emphasized at that, the governmental protection of monuments can be preserved, but "monuments must be allowed for privatizing", and new proprietors of the monuments must observe really strict demands.

Mikhail Shvydkoi also stressed that the difference between allocations to the culture needs was enormous in different parts of the country. According to the minister, they fluctuate from 18 to 1,600 rubles per head in a year. Meanwhile, these allocations make up only 8 kopecks in the countryside. Mikhail Shvydkoi thinks the gap can be surmounted with the help of target federal programs. In addition, the minister supported cessation of the estimated financing of culture institutions; he thinks that the financing should be switched to investment and contract basis. This measure, Mikhail Shvydkoi thinks, will help pay for actual doings, not for fiction.

Lenta.ru