Posted 4 июня 2020,, 15:22

Published 4 июня 2020,, 15:22

Modified 24 декабря 2022,, 22:37

Updated 24 декабря 2022,, 22:37

The court disqualified the head of the Federal State Circus for six months

The court disqualified the head of the Federal State Circus for six months

4 июня 2020, 15:22
A unique case in Russian justice: Vladimir Shemyakin, General Director of the Federal State-Funded Partnership Russian State Circus Company (Rosgostsirk), is suspended for 6 months. This decision was made by the judge of the 28th judicial section of the Leninsky district of Samara.

Ivan Petrovsky

The reason for making this decision was the "repeated failure to comply with the legal requirements of the prosecutor of the Leninsky district of Samara".

However, the disqualification of the general director of the state-owned enterprise was only the final chord against the backdrop of the serious problems of the Russian State Circus and how to manage it by Vladimir Shemyakin.

Shemyakin took up the post of director of the FKP “Russian State Circus Company” just a year ago - in the spring of 2019. And for this short time, about 28 submissions and decisions were issued by the prosecutor’s office against the head of the Rosgoszirk.

Here, for example, is the main question. About money. In 2019, Rosgosircir received about 1.4 billion rubles in the form of subsidies to the federal budget. It is clear that state money is allocated not just and not on the whim of the director. But ...432 million rubles were allocated for the overhaul of circuses, and 696 thousand rubles were spent; 228 million rubles were allocated to work to eliminate fire safety violations, and 37 million rubles were spent; 298 million rubles were allocated for current repairs, 31 million rubles were spent; The Russian State Circus received money for staging expenses to create a new circus program, but only 8 million of the allocated 72 million rubles were spent ...Thus, according to prosecutors, key performance indicators were not met in accordance with the terms of the grant for 2019.

According to the results of the inspections, the supervisory authorities instituted administrative proceedings against Shemyakin under Part 2 of Art. 15.15.5 - “Violation of the conditions for the provision of subsidies”.

“Shemyakin is a man terribly far from art in general and circus in particular,” the director of the Novosibirsk circus told IA “Rosbalt” Sergey Shabanov. - When the main goal of the director of the circus company is to repair the toilets in the circuses, new beautiful glasses and alcohol in the cupboards - nothing more needs to be explained to the real circus. He dismisses people who have given the circus for decades, and instead places them as sellers of meat and ice cream, spends state money on incomprehensible projects, and reduces deductions from rent to his "favorites." And if until now this has been getting away with it because of the Ministry of Culture’s inattention to circus art, now now there’s no escape from the court’s decision, it will have to be executed”.

50-year-old Vladimir Shemyakin was really terribly far from the circus. He graduated from Tula State Pedagogical University. L. Tolstoy, majoring in Philology, later received a master's degree in business administration, majoring in Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship, at the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation. At the beginning of winter 2011, he was elected as a deputy of the State Duma of the sixth convocation from the Republic of Mari El, served as deputy chairman of the department of nationalities. In other words, the head of the Russian State Circus saw the circus only as a spectator, and even then in distant Soviet childhood.

How exactly to execute the court decision on disqualification now is not very clear. Administrative paralysis in the Russian State Circus also coincided with the most severe blow to the circus art, which was inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic. For the third month, mass events have been banned in the country. Thousands of circus performers sit without work, and many without money.

Against this background, the scandal of the CEO Shemyakin with leading producers of the Russian circus, which, in fact, organize circus tours, flares up.

14 producers, each of which is accompanied by groups of artists from 50 to 120 people, wrote a letter to the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Olga Lyubimova.

“On April 30, each of us received another newsletter and draft agreements on the suspension of performance of contracts from the Russian State Circus, in case of refusal to sign them, the Russian State Circus will be forced to terminate the contract with the producers. Under the terms of this Agreement, we must compensate the Company for the cost of paying salaries to full-time artists and employees of the Russian State Circus involved in our programs, as well as to compensate for the costs of keeping and feeding animals that are on the staff list of rooms, until June 30, 2020. We do not understand why we must compensate for such costs at a time when performances are not held because of the threat of the spread of coronavirus, we don’t have any financial revenues, and the government’s policy is aimed at supporting private businesses that use animals", - said the appeal of the producers.

“Since the start of the pandemic, all circuses have been closed”, - the chief art director of the Royal Circus, Honored Artist of Russia and Georgia, told Express Gazette Gia Eradze. “...We do not understand why producers whose contract is temporarily suspended must compensate the state company, which receives a subsidy from the Ministry of Culture, the wages of its full-time artists, tax, and animal feeding.” This is simply an illegal requirement. If the goal is to ruin the best teams in the country - then I understand everything. We do not have money to compensate for such amounts. The letter we sent is the cry of the soul".

Production centers were supported by the Advisor to the General Director of the Russian State Circus Sergey Belyakov. He sees the problem in the failure of the State Statistics Committee to fulfill the instructions of the country's president. “Back in 2018, the president of Russia Vladimir Putin ordered to make the market as transparent as possible, ”he said. - Now it turns out that the Russian State Circus, taking a dominant position in the market, receiving a budget subsidy, is trying to take advantage of the difficult situation that private producers have fallen into and to oust them from the market. The General Director of the Russian State Circus V. Shemyakin is trying to blame the producers on the shoulders of the producers ... The fact that the Russian State Circus is still not included in the list of backbone enterprises is a banal flaw in the company's management”.

To date, no one understands how long the ban on cultural events will last, but it is obvious that going out of the financial hole for circus groups will be painful and long. To simply resume the tour, producers will have to spend more than one million rubles. However, their key partner, the world's largest circus company, receiving billions of subsidies from the state, only exacerbates the crisis. So, even with those producers who agreed to the proposed conditions for the suspension of contracts, the State Statistical Committee has not yet signed an agreement on suspension. In relation to producers who work fully with their programs, it is generally a question of terminating the contract with the subsequent requirement to release the circuses - that is, to remove animals, props and equipment in an unknown direction.

It is easy to imagine what will happen to the artists of these groups and what will happen to numerous animals that need daily feeding and proper care.

"