The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation will allocate 1 billion rubles for the reconstruction of the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg. This was reported on Wednesday, September 30, by RIA Novosti with reference to a statement by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Chernyshenko.
According to him, funds for priority work will be allocated in 2020 and 2021. The restoration and reconstruction of the historic building of the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024, commissioning and commissioning are to be carried out in 2025.
According to Denis Kolodko, Deputy Director of the North-West Directorate for Construction, Reconstruction and Restoration of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, in October it is planned to announce a competition for emergency work in the conservatory building.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly drawn attention to the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He instructed the government and authorities to bring the issue of reconstruction to the end. In March 2020, the president instructed to take emergency measures and resume the restoration as soon as possible. Emergency response work has already been carried out.
“Because, to be honest, there were certain violations, including technological ones, which could not have been considered otherwise than vandalism,” Chernyshenko told REGNUM.
The Ministry of Construction has joined the restoration process, the Zvezda TV channel notes. One of the main tasks, according to the Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov, is to preserve the unique acoustic qualities of the Great Hall of the Conservatory, the website kp.ru writes. For this, coordination with professionals will be carried out.
Valery Gergiev, artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater, volunteered for this role. The theater is located opposite the conservatory on Teatralnaya square. Gergiev will evaluate the technological proposals for the stage and acoustic parameters of the building.
The restoration of the conservatory began in 2014. The first contractors were “Stroyfasad” and “Baltstroy” – the contracts with them were terminated in 2017. After them, Meander took over the work, but in 2018 they were suspended and the contracts were again terminated.
On September 23, in St. Petersburg, the owners of the company were detained, who had stolen 191 million rubles allocated for the restoration of the conservatory. OOO Meandr received an advance payment of 191 million rubles, most of which was transferred to third parties. The money was cashed, but the planned work was not carried out.