A group of figures of Russian culture have clamoured against the open letter addressed by the film director Nikita Mikhalkov and the sculptor Zurab Tsereteli to President Vladimir Putin and expressing a request to remain on the presidential post for another term.
      
      The authors of the open letter published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta on October 16 claimed in their message that “all the art community of Russia” and “tens of thousands of artists and figures of the national culture and art” supported the idea of Putin’s “Third Term”. The letter was signed by President of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli, its Vice President Tair Salakhov, Rector of St. Petersburg Academy of Arts Albert Charkin and President of Russian Culture Fund Nikita Mikhalkov.
      
      In opposition to the “Letter of the Four”, as it was called, a group of figures of Russian culture have issued their own open letter to President Putin. They claim, in their turn, that “nobody empowered Nikita Mikhalkov, Zurab Tsereteli and the others signers of the appeal to represent the entire community of Russian culture. The fact that they have taken liberty to do it is outrageous and simply indecent. Such an appeal is casting a shadow not only on those who have signed it but on you as the President as well”.
      
      “Many figures of art and science, including us, are sure that you must not remain the head of the state under any pretext and you must not undertake any intricate scheming for that - it humiliates Russia and its citizens.” - reads the open letter signed by the literature historian Marietta Chudakova, the actors Oleg Basilashvili and Sergei Yursky, the artist Yuri Avvakumov and the dramatist Alexander Gelman.
      
      Source: lenta.ru