Olga Borisovna Lyubimova (russian: Ольга Борисовна Любимова; born 31 December 1980) is a Russian politician serving as the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation. She was appointed on 21 January 2020. Prior to her current appointment, Lyubimova has served the Deputy Minister of Culture since 2015 and as the head of its

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...

department since 2018.

Early life and education

She is the daughter of Boris Lyubimov (currently the acting president of the

Mikhail Shchepkin Higher Theatre School The Mikhail Semyonovich Shchepkin Higher Theatre School (Institute) is a drama school associated with the Maly Theatre (Moscow), State Academic Maly Theatre in Moscow. It was established in 1809 by decree of Alexander I of Russia. History Sin ...

) and the great-granddaughter of renowned actor

Vasily Kachalov Vasily Ivanovich Kachalov (russian: Василий Иванович Качалов; – 30 September 1948), was one of Russia's most renowned actors. He worked closely and often with Konstantin Stanislavski. He led the so-called Kachalov Group wi ...

. Following an unhappy enrollment at an Orthodox high school which she would later compare to an

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

training camp, Lyubimova graduated from

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

with a degree in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

and from the Russian Institute of Theater Arts where she studied theater.

Career

Since the 2000s she has worked often in television, working on shows including '' Vzglyad'', ''Orthodox'', and ''Orthodox Calendar''. She has been head of Channel One's directorate of social and journalistic programs since 2016. Her appointment as Minister of Culture was controversial due to past

LiveJournal LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, as ...

posts by Lyubimova wherein she said she "can't stand going to exhibitions, museums, opera" and explained that "I've been to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

and a few dozen more European and Russian museums and reckon I wasted my time there". However, she received support from film critic Anton Dolin, who said "she loves culture, or at least, cinema". On 6 May 2020, Olga Lyubimova's Press Secretary announced that she had contracted the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, but the disease is mild, so hospitalization is not required. Since the disease was mild, on 14 May Lyubimova recovered and returned to the exercise of her powers.

References

External links

* 1980 births Living people Politicians from Moscow Culture ministers of Russia Women government ministers of Russia Moscow State University alumni 21st-century Russian politicians 21st-century Russian women politicians {{Russia-politician-stub