MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has refuted allegations about resignation of Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky.

"This is not true," he said on Monday when asked by TASS to either confirm or deny media reports about Medinsky’s possible resignation.

Earlier on Monday, lawmakers from Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg voiced support to a petition to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev demanding Medinsky’s resignation. Six members of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly’s committee on education, culture and science voted in favor the document which will be referred to the Assembly’s general session on Wednesday.

Rumors about Medinsky’s resignation has been swirling since March 16 when Deputy Minister of Culture Grigory Pirumov was placed under arrest on charges of embezzling 50 million rubles (736,400 U.S. dollars) allocated from the federal budget for restoration of Russia’s tangible cultural heritage. Several other culture ministry officials were detained on the same charges.