Meduza has published an investigation into the head of the Public Projects Department (PPD) in the presidential administration, Sergei Novikov, who has been called the «chief censor of Russian culture.»
The PPD monitors musicians' statements, and Novikov's subordinates, Meduza claimed, compile lists of «banned artists.» In addition, the department is responsible for the Presidential Administration's interaction with the media, «patriotic education,» youth policy, and contacts with pro-government public organizations.
In the 1990s, Novikov worked as a journalist at the Nizhny Novgorod private radio station Radio Rendezvous, whose management «had good relations with Sergei Kiriyenko,» Meduza's sources said.
Already in the early 2000s, Novikov moved to the civil service and became the chief adviser to Kiriyenko’s apparatus — then he was the presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District. In 2005, when Kiriyenko was appointed head of Rosatom, Novikov was responsible for press relations in the company, and at the end of 2016 he joined Kiriyenko at AP.
In the spring of 2022, when Russian artists and musicians signed anti-war letters, Novikov held a series of meetings and meetings at which Russian filmmakers and artistic directors were given the condition that “this would not happen again.” According to one of the actresses, at the meeting Novikov told those present about the “dirty bomb”. The official’s subordinates called charities and NGOs that signed the letter against the war and offered to withdraw the signatures.
An unnamed Meduza source in one of the “well-known online publications” claims that it was Novikov who in 2020 sent journalists “test results” of Alexei Navalny after his poisoning with Novichok — it followed from the document that in “Nothing suspicious” was found in the politician’s blood.
In addition, Novikov called Project journalist Mikhail Rubin and warned that writing a text about Alexei Gromov, the head of Russian propaganda, was “very dangerous.”
Novikov is on the supervisory board of the Internet Development Institute (IRI), an organization that specializes in the production of “patriotic content.” According to Meduza, if necessary, he makes changes to film scripts and decides whether modern films comply with the concept of “protecting national interests” and “national sovereignty.”
Novikov is also a member of the supervisory board ANO “Dialogue” », oversees the presidential foundation “Circle of Good” and the children’s “Movement of the First,” which is called “Putin’s pioneers.”
Novikov’s 25-year-old daughter, Ksenia, works in the First Movement. She also holds the position of deputy director at the A-Mero company, an agency that conducts events for the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Knowledge Society, the ANO “Russia — Land of Opportunities” and the All-Russian Schoolchildren Movement. As Meduza notes, in 2023 Novikova went on vacation to Italy.
According to Meduza and Important Stories, Novikov was involved in projects in the occupied territories of Ukraine, including being responsible for financing programs for the “integration” of teenagers from Donbass. In her Telegram channel, his wife Ekaterina Shugaeva reports on her trips to Donetsk and Mariupol.
In 2024, Novikov independently directed Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem at the Moscow Philharmonic for the eightieth anniversary of the lifting of the siege of Leningrad.
This production was first shown back in 2019 — the chronicle of the Great Patriotic War was always shown on the screens installed behind the choir and orchestra. However, on January 27, when the choir sang the last part of the “Requiem” Libera Me , viewers were shown a video in which footage of the Nazi torchlight procession in Berlin was replaced by video from Euromaidan, swastikas by Ukrainian flags, and the demolition of Soviet monuments by footage of book burning in the Third Reich.
At that moment, a concert participant told Meduza, several spectators stood up and left the hall. The publication’s interlocutors noted that for conductor Dmitry Yurovsky, these shots became a “surprise”, and the musicians “had no idea” about them during the performance.