MOSCOW, December 23, 21:37 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian pianist Denis Matsuyev was elected chairman of the Public Council of the Russian Ministry of Culture on Monday. The Council members unanimously voted for Matsuyev who had been nominated by Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky.

Medinsky said that Matsuyev was not only a talented musician but also chairman of the previous council. He is convinced that no one would do the job better than Matsuyev who pledged to work hard in his post.

“2014 declared to be the year of culture is slightly more than a week away,” Medinsky said. He said that the Public Council’s position on key issues would be crucial. According to him, the organization will have broad powers. “Openness is the best way to fight evil,” the Russian culture minister emphasized.

Medinsky believes that Matsuyev will be able to raise problems which bureaucrats have no time to handle. He said that twelve Russian circuses would be renovated in Russia in the next two years. One circus will be renovated under a federal target programme. The other eleven will be repaired at the expense of the Russian Culture Ministry and public funds.

A photo exhibition that opened in the foyer of the building of the philharmonic society features the key cultural events of 2013.

“A public council is an instrument for adopting right and effective decisions,” Medinsky said. It is supposed to improve the quality of decisions adopted by the Culture Ministry and form a model system of interaction among bureaucrats, experts and representatives of civil society. The Public Council under the Russian Culture Ministry comprises about a hundred people. Monday’s meeting was attended by Irina Antonova, the president of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; Vladimir Urin, the general director of the Bolshoi Theatre; Nikolai Tsiskaridze, the acting rector of the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg; TV presenter Leonid Yakubovich, producer Leonid Vereshchagin, animal trainer Edgard Zapashnyi, actor Nikolai Burlyayev and others.