Press Release, 07.08.2014

Today YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin published an open letter to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev demanding to dismiss the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky. The reason for this is a number of offensive and unprofessional statements by Medinsky towards the citizens of Russia who suffered from the tourism industry crisis.

Vladimir Medinsky compared the people who suffered from travel agencies bankruptcy with mice who have been seduced by “free cheese”.

“Apart from the offensive comparison the Minister actually exonerateed the state from responsibility for the current situation though the financial collapse of such a big number of travel agencies gives evidence that the state couldn’t at least foresee and in due time prevent the epidemic of travel agencies bankruptcy”, noted Mitrokhin.

YABLOKO leader claims that if the charges of fraud on behalf of the travel agencies are true then there’re failures in the work of both law enforcement and the state organisation which are responsible for this industry.

Sergei Mitrokhin claims that since the Ministry of Culture is the supervisor of the Federlal Tourism Agency, Medinsky has exonerated himself from responsibility and unloaded it on the tourists.

“You and I may have different opinion on Medinsky as a Minister of Culture. Maybe you don’t share my opinion that in Medinsky’s understanding culture is not much different from primitive political propaganda. But at the same time I have no doubt that you will agree with me on one point: the Minister of Culture cannot be a cad in any situation”, runs Mitrokhin’s application to Dmitry Medvedev.