The security forces detained the former head of the Moscow Department of Culture, Alexander Kibovsky. This was reported to RBC by two sources who are familiar with the case materials.
Kibovsky is involved in the case of receiving a bribe and fraud on an especially large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code and Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code). Information about this was confirmed by the Investigative Committee. According to the department, he “facilitated” commercial organizations to enter into government contracts for bribes.
The investigation asked the Zamoskvoretsky District Court to place him under arrest, as follows from the case file.
Kibovsky has worked at the Moscow City Hall since November 2010. At first, he was the head of the Department of Cultural Heritage, and from 2015 to September 2023, he headed the Department of Culture. Most recently, he was an adviser to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on cultural cooperation with the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
In December 2022, Kibovsky on the pro-government YouTube channel “Empathy Manuchi” by Vyacheslav Manucharov, speaking about the war in Ukraine, read an excerpt from a poem by Konstantin Simonov “So kill at least one/So kill him quickly/How many times will you see him/So many times will you kill him.” He ended his remark with the phrase “Work, brothers.” According to Kibovsky, “there should be no mercy for the Nazis.”
While working at the mayor's office, Kibovsky introduced a system where it became possible to rent a house with protected status for 1 ruble per square meter, subject to the restoration of the monument. Moreover, after Kibovsky joined the Moscow government, the Arkhnadzor movement began maintaining the “Black Book” — a catalog of losses of demolished architectural heritage.
Kibovsky also worked at the Ministry of Culture — he came there back in 1997 after two years at the Battle of Borodino panorama museum. From 1998 to 2000, he served as deputy head of the licensing department of the department for the preservation of cultural property.
In 2004-2008, Kibovsky worked in the government apparatus: he was first an adviser and then deputy director of the department of mass communications, culture and education. In 2008, Medvedev appointed him head of the Rosokhrankultura department.