Shoigu’s ex-advisor became the advisor to the director of the Tretyakov Gallery

Maria Kitaeva, a former adviser to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, was appointed adviser to the director of the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Kitaeva’s appointment was reported by TV presenter and film critic of the First Channel Ekaterina Mtsyturidze in her Telegram channel. Kitaeva’s niece Ksenia confirmed this information.

There is no information about Kitaeva’s appointment on the official website of the Tretyakov Gallery.

The publication “Vazhney istorii” traces the professional path of Maria Kitaeva. She has no art education. She studied at MGIMO and GITIS, participated in theater productions. She worked as a TV presenter on the “Zvezda” and “Stolitsa” channels, then on VGTRK. In 2012, she became an adviser and press secretary to the Minister of Defense of Russia, Sergei Shoigu. In 2017, she left the Ministry of Defense on maternity leave with the rank of lieutenant general.

The Insider reported that Maria Kitaeva’s family owns real estate worth almost one and a half billion rubles. The publication found that after the start of work in the Ministry of Defense, there were no official reports of Kitaeva’s dismissal, and at least as of 2020, she continued to be in the ministry. It also became known that the Kitaev family was building a business on the former lands of the Ministry of Defense, which were sold at an undervalued price.

In May 2022, because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kitaeva was placed on Canada’s sanctions list for supporting Putin’s policies.

• The Tretyakov Gallery is one of the main Russian museums of fine art. In early February, the previous director of the museum, Zelfira Tregulova, left her post due to the end of her employment contract. Tregulova’s dismissal was preceded by an application to the Ministry of Culture of Russia from one of the visitors. He demanded to start an inspection of the museum for compliance with the state policy in the field of “spiritual and moral values”, because he did not like some of the works in the exposition.
• Elena Pronycheva, the daughter of the former deputy head of the FSB, army general Vladimir Pronycheva, became the new director. Previously, Pronycheva held managerial positions at the Jewish Museum and the Center for Tolerance, and then at the Moscow Polytechnic Museum. She does not have an art education, but her colleagues speak of her as an effective manager.