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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: How is the work going, Ms Lyubimova?

Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova: We have many ongoing projects and a high presence, cooperating with 22 culture ministers from other countries.

I would like to take this opportunity and say a few words about our current activities and report on the new projects by the Cinema Foundation. We usually give you the audience figures for this or that movie but at this point, new exciting and very interesting projects appear. For example, we are building forepost studios in our regions, in Donbass. Such studios have opened in Lugansk and Shakhtersk. We plan to open more in Chersonese and Kherson.

These are large newsreel studios for all documentary filmmakers, mainly young ones who are just starting out and have the opportunity to work in the new regions. They have access to modern, very good equipment and can stay overnight.

Denis Pushilin [Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic] and I recently visited one studio together to see how it goes. Young filmmakers from Rostov are working in Lugansk on creating documentary chronicles, which you have spoken about many times. It is very important that now there is new infrastructure for this sort of projects.

I would like to mention another important aspect: thanks to two national projects, Culture that is now over, and Family that has been launched, the Cinema Foundation has built almost 1,500 cinemas across Russia. There are 83 new cinemas in the new regions and, I must say, our cinemas are very popular. They have already been visited by over a million people. We are very pleased to see that, for example, 760,000 are young people who can go on a date there, meet up with friends and stay up to date on new releases.

Vladimir Putin: Distribution of foreign motion pictures, quotas and so on. Well, you know these problems. Our cultural figures and filmmakers have been sending letters.

Olga Lyubimova: You know, currently we are working on the possibility of preserving the share of Russian films. And, of course, we agree that this endeavour is really necessary as a measure of support for Russian cinema. So far, foreign films are not queuing up to return to Russian screens, and our film distribution system is represented by films from friendly countries or film directors who want to have their films released in Russia. Yet, of course, I think that with time, Russian cinema will need some help here.

Vladimir Putin: Does it mean that you support what our cultural figures are trying so hard to achieve?

Olga Lyubimova: Certainly. We have supporting statistics as well. You remember, of course, that in 2021, everyone was saying that the Russian audience would not be interested in watching only Russian films? Nevertheless, we hit 100 million cinemagoers in 2024. Russian films account for 79 percent, or almost 80 percent.

Vladimir Putin: Compared to 27 in the past?

Olga Lyubimova: Yes, the share used to be 27 percent. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the people who used to watch only foreign films stopped going to the cinema. They are now better experts when it comes to Russian cinema. They discuss it, hold debates, criticise, show more interest here and praise productions there. This has encouraged our Russian filmmakers to work hard. We knew well that the risk of failure was getting smaller with every anticipated or debated release.

Moreover, our attitude toward the subjects addressed by Russian cinema is changing. There is more responsibility. If you remember, when we started working on more children’s films thanks to your instruction, many cinematographers said: “Children’s cinema does not exist. Children’s films belong to the Soviet Union.” And now, when we release 20 films every year and they are popular with families, including seniors, and producers of the actors so much liked by children and teenagers, as well as by older people, think carefully about strategies to attract entire families, including grandparents, to the cinema and make everybody happy.

I must say at this point that, besides films for children, we also have historical dramas, and something very important and challenging for us, but we are working on it – everything that concerns our modern history, including the special military operation. Over the recent period, we have received really compelling film scripts. Creators have had enough time to process this topic and start writing about it. They have talked to real heroes and witnesses of those events. So, we hope we can soon please the audience with some contemporary content.

One more area that I will mention is related to the new network we are creating together with Russian embassies and the Federal Agency for CIS Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo). For many years, we didn’t have cinemas in Russian Houses abroad, yet we need them for Russian film festivals and for promoting Russian cinema.

Vladimir Putin: Do our people go [to these cinemas]?

Olga Lyubimova: With great pleasure. Our compatriots abroad do go and, of course, there is great interest on the part of the locals who historically have warm attitude towards the Russian Houses.

Even when we organise exhibitions in so-called unfriendly countries like France or Germany, where we have also opened cinemas at Russian Houses, people in central Paris come to see exhibitions dedicated to ballerina Anna Pavlova, for example.

True, we cannot bring actual exhibits there at the moment but we organise multimedia exhibitions. The very stories about our culture are incredibly popular and not only among people who emigrated from Russia during different periods. A great number of French people visit the Russian Houses with great interest. This work is incredibly interesting and relevant.

Just like our work with the CIS countries where we also plan to open cinemas. First of all, their movie theatre chains are not particularly big and my colleagues, the ministers of culture, say that our programmes are indeed popular. Just as you instructed us in the past to help Russian theatres in the CIS. We help with lighting and sound equipment, and, most importantly, with funding for new productions and repertoire renewal. These events are sold out and it is very important to us because these efforts contribute to preserving the relations within the CIS countries. There is also an extensive programme available in Abkhazia.

The next two slides in my presentation concern our work with 89 Russian regions and our national projects. The Culture national project has been a great assistance to the federal agencies. We used to have 200 agency subdivisions, including iconic and signature ones for our countries. Thanks to our continued cooperation with regional ministers, we are fully aware of the problems in rural and municipal areas, of small libraries and cultural centres. We know exactly which region is in great need and where we should promptly redistribute funding. Most importantly, we can plan the budget up until 2030.

We realise that we can increase the number of facilities to 20,000 by 2030. This is extremely important. Children’s art schools will receive new musical instruments; there will be new construction and renovation projects. For the first time, we have been able to address the issues of regional philharmonic halls that the regions have no funding for. These are typically cultural heritage sites as well. It is very important to help them with infrastructure development.

On the other hand, now we have the County Cultural Worker programme, which is also a very important area. We already have the first 140 people working under the programme and the target is to hit 235 by the end of the year. We already have the first top ten of leading regions. Our colleagues from the Kursk and Orel regions and the Stavropol Territory have already started working, both young and not so young people. We do not have any age quotas here. This is a very important area of work. Somewhere it is a bit harder, we will address this separately with our colleagues from the Far East.

Vladimir Putin: I can see that the geographical spread is quite extensive.

Olga Lyubimova: We are working. Actually, as it often happens, there are regions working very hard, and in some regions, of course, our colleagues need help, including again in the Far Eastern Federal District and the North Caucasus Federal District. Yet, where programme development is slower, we try to do good whenever we can by finding cultural centres, children’s art schools and so on.

Vladimir Putin: Naberezhnye Chelny, the Omsk Region, the Sverdlovsk Region, the Ivanovo Region, Arkhangelsk…

Olga Lyubimova: You know, it is an incredible celebration when a children’s educational or cultural centre opens. There is always a warm response from the public. Governors can see that and this prompts them to invest money. They used to believe that nobody is interested in our libraries but now this attitude has changed.

Vladimir Putin: Good example is the best sermon.

Olga Lyubimova: It is true. Local residents like this. And as a logic transition from our work with the municipalities – the Pushkin Card with its 12 million holders. Mr President, since the launch of this project in 2021, our cultural facilities have received 46 billion rubles in extra-budgetary funding thanks to this decision.

Even our libraries have started making money by running more clubs. And what do extra-budgetary funds mean? They mean that salaries will be slightly higher; some will find it possible to renovate their facilities or organise their own events. Pushkin Card is quite popular among young people. Tickets for students have always been expensive and they could not afford to go somewhere together or as a group.

This is why we see this as an important ongoing work. I should say that almost 12,000 of our cultural institutions are involved in this programme.

This slide is dedicated to cultural heritage sites. It is one of the most challenging areas of work for us. There are 300,000 cultural heritage sites across Russia and we understand that we are slowly and very carefully relaxing the law while preserving the quality of these sites.

Vladimir Putin: This is a very good point. Reducing administrative barriers for monument renovation is the right goal but, most importantly, we must not allow losing these monuments.

Olga Lyubimova: Absolutely.

We are meeting in St Petersburg and you are aware of the problems with residential buildings here and how important it is to renovate both facades and internal infrastructure. Of course, removing these barriers allows governors to work much faster.

I must mention another area of work, an enormous project dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. A network of our cultural facilities includes 93,000 of them. When I tell my foreign colleagues about this, they often think that I speak poor English or I made a mistake. They can understand 10,000 and very few believe that we can have 93,000.

It is very important that, as we celebrate the anniversary of Victory… I am certain and I simply know that there is no facility, from a small library or a children’s art school to the Bolshoi Theatre or Tsarskoye Selo where we are meeting, that would not have an extensive commemorative programme. This is incredibly important. We see much engagement from students and teachers alike.

Certainly, cultural facilities become places that draw people during such an important year. Throughout the year, they can attract diverse visitors, from war veterans to youth. This work will continue until the end of the year.

And the last project I want to mention is a completely new area of work that addresses strengthening traditional spiritual and moral values, as well as historical memory.

I would not say that the Ministry of Culture has never addressed this issue but there is a specific executive order thanks to which we and almost 70 federal executive bodies, all Russian regions, have launched some very serious work, in cooperation with the historical community. Such major historical projects and campaigns help us preserve this intergenerational connection.

Of course, I hope that our work to preserve the truth and the historical memory, along with archives, will also become a mainstream project like County Cultural Worker or Pushkin Card. The great number of projects and the engagement of the professional community, school and university students will help us preserve our history and the truth about the history of Russia.

Vladimir Putin: Great, thank you very much.

Olga Lyubimova: Thank you.

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