On Tuesday, the renovated Presidential Council of Culture and Arts had a meeting in the Kremlin. Putin stated that the state authorities allocated four billion roubles for higher salaries to cultural workers. Meanwhile, the president said that the Russians should not face “cultural fast food” and not to lose “their cultural code”.
The Novye Izvestia daily reported the Presidential Council of Culture and Arts met in the new line-up for the first time. Under the presidential decree on September 19, 2012 the numerical strength of the council increased from 45 to 58 members. The Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily reported that, according to the president, various false cultural products, which Putin called as “cultural fast food”, threaten Russian culture. To combat their malign impact the president proposed to focus on the education system, moreover, many cultural personalities are concerned over a lower humanitarian aspect of modern education. Putin noted that the schools, kindergartens, universities should bring up a personality, teach in the critical way, think in their own way, not just to transmit the information, but also to draw a clear-cut line between the good and the evil, “I believe that the most important task of education is to form personal culture and taste of a person, his or her spiritual guidelines and the vision.”
The Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported in the article titled “Putin does not like “fast food” that the state authorities will protect the cultural heritage together with ordinary people. But Russia should pass from the protection of some facilities to the complex protection of historical centres in the cities. The traditional financial support to culture will be not only continued, but also will be intensified. Putin noted that the salary of cultural workers will grow 30-33% in 2013. The state authorities are planning to allocate four billion roubles for these purposes.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda daily cited film director Karen Shakhnazarov, who proposed to make the entrance to the museums free, as it was done in several countries. On what funds the museums will live? “Let the football clubs buy one foreign footballer less and pass these spared funds to the museum,” the film director underlined.