The Tverskoy Court of Moscow found former Deputy Minister of Culture Olga Yarilova guilty of abuse of power in the implementation of the Pushkin Card program and sentenced her to 7 years in a general regime colony. The RG correspondent was informed about this by the press service of the Tver Court. They also added that the ex-official was deprived of the right to hold positions in state and local government bodies for two years after serving her sentence.
In addition, the district court satisfied the civil claim of the Ministry of Culture in the amount of over 125.8 million rubles.
In turn, as the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office told RG, the court established that from 2021 to September 2022, Yarilova was the head of the federal project – the state program for social support of youth from 14 to 22 years old to increase the accessibility of cultural organizations “Pushkinskaya map”.
She knew that SP-Capital LLC, which organized the exhibition “The Highest Ice Cream Museum in the World” at the Moscow City observation deck, could not be a participant in this program, since it does not have exhibits included in the museum collection of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) . However, as the investigation and the court established, “Yarilova, out of personal interest in increasing the program’s implementation indicators, which directly affect the assessment of the results of its activities and the activities of the structural divisions of the ministry supervised by her, did not give instructions to exclude SP-Capital from the project.”
As a result, the “ice cream museum” sold tickets worth over 125 million rubles using the “Pushkin Card”, which were reimbursed to it from the federal budget.
In court, Olga Yarilova did not admit her guilt, saying during her last word that she had no self-interest. According to her, she did not take bribes and did not even try this ice cream. Her defense insisted on an acquittal.
Kommersant.Ru, 04/25/2024, “Seven years for ice cream”: The Pushkin Card program, we remind you, was launched on September 1, 2021. It provides young people aged 14 to 22 with the right to free admission to museums, theatres, cinemas, exhibitions and various cultural events. To do this, 5 thousand rubles are annually transferred from the budget to the participant’s plastic or virtual bank card from the budget, which cannot be cashed out, but can only be spent for its intended purpose – to purchase a ticket.
Olga Yarilova did not admit guilt. The ex-official’s lawyers, in turn, insisted that the state prosecution did not present any evidence of their client’s guilt during the trial. The defense emphasized that the defendant did not have the authority to include or not include the company that owns the museum in the state program, since such decisions are made by an expert council, whose members were not subordinate to Olga Yarilova. — Insertion K.ru
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