“Yeltsin Centre” apologized to European colleagues for review Mikhalkov
Moscow. May 8. INTERFAX.RU — representatives of the “Yeltsin Centre”, who on may 6 won the award “Best European Museum 2017”, apologized to European museums for the comment of the Director Nikita Mikhalkov, in which he compared the prize centre with the award of the Third Reich.
“The Director in fact made insulting remarks not only to the “Yeltsin Centre”, but also dozens of lovely European museums, which for forty years has won this competition. The Director didn’t even occur to me to ask, what exactly is the competition “Best European Museum” and which projects have been awarded its highest awards. How can you compare the awards to these museums and our Museum with the iron cross from the armed forces of Nazi Germany?” — said in a statement on the center’s website.
It is noted that along with the Museum of Boris Yeltsin in 2017 the main awards went to the Ethnographic Museum in Geneva, the Museum of the history of Leiria in Portugal, Memorial centre of the slave trade and slavery in Guadeloupe, a Department of France.
“As representatives of Russia, honored with awards, I want to apologize to our European colleagues, who publicly insulted and humiliated the person having the passport of our country. The participants and all our colleagues in the Museum, you can be sure most of our citizens relate to their educational mission with great respect” — said in a press release.
“Yeltsin Centre” was opened in Yekaterinburg in November 2015. At the opening ceremony was attended by President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, well-known politicians, cultural figures and people who knew the first Russian President.
At the end of last year Mikhalkov criticized the “Yeltsin Centre”, which, according to him, “daily injections of destruction of the national identity of the people,” and proposed to change the nature of its activities. This speech caused a public outcry. The widow of the first President of Russia Naina Yeltsin said that deeply shocked by these statements.
Then Mikhalkov visited the center personally and said that he had not changed his views on the exposure.
On December 23 last year, the Russian President called for reducing the degree of discussion that arose around the “Yeltsin” and the interpretation of history in its exhibitions. However, answering questions of journalists at the annual conference, he expressed the opinion that “some things there should more precisely to apply”.