Olena Honcharuk, suspended from the duties of the general director of the Dovzhenko Center, stated that the newly appointed head Andriy Alferov leaked internal information to the Presidentʼs Office and director Oleksandr Rodnyansky throughout the entire scandal surrounding the Center.
She told about this in a comment to Babel.
"Andriy and I spoke after the announcement of the reorganization of the Dovzhenko Center. Andriy was so much worried about the fact that Minister of Culture Tkachenko did not sign a contract with me, and about the consequences of the reorganization. He said that he [Andriy] contributes to the delivery of this information to the Office of the President. But Andriyʼs goal was also to prevent the scandal from escalating. He communicated with representatives of the Presidentʼs Office. Who [which person] it was exactly, we did not discuss. He claimed that he was acting in the interest of preserving the Dovzhenko Center, as he had previously cooperated with us as a curator. He knows the value of the exhibits stored in the Dovzhenko Center. But his efforts did not yield results," Olena Honcharuk noted.
According to her, a few days ago Oleksandr Rodnyanskyiʼs post appeared, which expressed support for Dovzhenko-Center.
"In his [Oleksandr] post there was information that I provided to Andriy. He used it in any way available to him. I hope he did it sincerely. Yesterday it became known from the media that Andriy accepted the offer to take the position of the acting director of the ][Dovzhenko] Center. Itʼs a surprise for me, as well as for the team," Honcharuk added.
She called Alferov a professional film critic, but considers his appointment strange.
"Alferov wrote on his Facebook page what he plans to do. But a few days ago all of this was impossible. The Ministry of Culture and the Ukrainian State Film Agency (USFA) did not see an opportunity to grant national status, preserve the collection, provide funding for the Center, and suddenly it becomes possible. Where did the purpose of the reorganization go? What happened? More questions arise here. It seems to me that the Ministry of Culture and the USFA should announce in what form, in their imagination, the Dovzhenko Center should exist. Andriy is either consciously taking this step, or he is being manipulated," Honcharuk stated.
- The day before, the newly appointed Acting Director of the State Enterprise "National Center of Oleksandr Dovzhenko" Yulia Kazhdan wrote a resignation letter. A film critic and member of the international film press federation FIPRESCI Andriy Alferov was appointed as the new acting general director.