Moscow, Pushkin Museum deputy director resigns over situation in Ukraine

Given the climate in Russia, and in light of the latest crackdowns on those protesting the war in Ukraine, it is certainly courageous of Vladimir Opredelenov, deputy director of the Pushkin State Museum in Moscow, to resign because of what is happening in Ukraine. “Dear friends,” he wrote in a post on Instagram, “I would like to thank the Pushkin Museum team, as well as all our colleagues and partners in the museum industry, with whom we have worked, maintained contacts, quarreled, sought compromises and created something special over these 19 years. For nine of those years I was deputy director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, first in information technology, then in digital development. Together, we explored how best to use digital and multimedia technologies for the development of our society, the study and preservation of our historical and cultural heritage, and to educate people. We developed projects and concepts and dreamed of a digital space available and accessible to all, the removal of barriers to beauty and knowledge for all who value equitable dialogue and culture as the basis of civilization and its sustainable development.”

“Unfortunately,” Opredelenov concludes, “my attitude to world current affairs does not coincide with that of many of my colleagues in the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. I hope this will change in the near future, but with things as they are, I am forced at this time to leave my beloved Museum.”

Opredelenov, however, is not the only executive of major Russian cultural institutions who has decided to step aside and express his position. This Thursday, the artistic director of the V-A-C Foundation in Moscow, Italian Francesco Manacorda, had similarly announced his resignation, sending a note to the state news agency TASS. “Unfortunately, current events have greatly altered working and personal conditions, so I have come to the conclusion that I will not be able to continue working with the same dedication that I could be proud of,” he stressed. “My decision has been given to me with great difficulty and regret.”

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, let it be known, also to TASS, that Putin will soon organize a meeting with cultural figures, and in the meantime he urges against creating situations of conflict with those who disagree with what the Kremlin calls the “special operation in Ukraine,” stressing, however, that the latter are people who need explanations. “There are heated debates among cultural representatives,” Peskov said, “there are those who support the president and do so sincerely, there are those who do not fully understand the essence of what is happening. But this does not mean that they should be the object of enmity, they just need patient explanations.” At the moment it is not yet known when the meeting between Putin and the cultural workers will be held (it will be arranged “in due course,” Peskov let it be known).

Photo: the Pushkin Museum. Wikipedia/Mike1979 image.

Moscow, Pushkin Museum deputy director resigns over situation in Ukraine

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