June Education Minister Livanov resigned. Is Livanov's resignation before the elections an "attempt to shed excess weight"? Not just a textbook

The post of head of the Ministry of Education went to an employee of the presidential administration, Olga Vasilyeva. Livanov will be the special representative of the head of state for trade and economic relations with Ukraine

Dmitry Livanov. Photo: Dmitry Astakhov/TASS

Dmitry Livanov leaves his post a month before the elections, a source in the government apparatus told RBC. This information was also confirmed to the publication by a source in the Ministry of Education and Science.

According to the latest information, the information was confirmed. Livanov will become the president's special envoy for trade and economic relations with Ukraine. According to Interfax, Vladimir Putin agreed with Dmitry Medvedev's proposal to appoint Olga Vasilyeva, an employee of the presidential administration, to the post of head of the Ministry of Education.

Dmitry Livanov is the most unpopular minister. He has held this post since 2012. According to VTsIOM data, most of the Russians surveyed rate its activities as "deuce". Livanov was repeatedly criticized for the reform of education, the Unified State Examination, the reduction in the number of schools, and the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences was also under him. At the beginning of this year, he was removed from the Supreme Council of United Russia. What are the reasons for his resignation?

Nikolay Petrov professor at the Higher School of Economics, political scientist“An attempt to drop some extra cargo from a balloon and neutralize some of the critical sentiment or make some kind of gesture in favor of public sentiment is a completely logical thing. As soon as our social sphere is in a difficult situation, then both healthcare and education are exactly the structures where discontent is accumulating.”

Pavel Salin, Director of the Center for Political Science Research at the Financial University, talks about what is behind Livanov's resignation:

Director of the Center for Political Studies of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation"Position offered. This is an indicator that he is retiring not because he is dissatisfied, but because he has fulfilled his role, fulfilled his mission, his function. They donate now just before the elections, as Zurabov was donated before the Duma elections in 2007, he was also very unpopular, such a lightning rod, and during the Duma campaign he was dismissed in September 2007. Now it's Livanov's turn. Everything, in principle, fits into the political media logic, because tomorrow there will be an All-Russian pedagogical conference with the participation of Dmitry Medvedev, at which the new minister will be introduced to the pedagogical community. Thus, the main claim against the government, Medvedev and United Russia in the field of educational policy is removed. Here you are, a new minister, and pin new hopes on him. As for Livanov's position, of course, taking into account, firstly, his past work experience, and secondly, the difficult relations between Russia and Ukraine, this position does not have serious prospects for Livanov. But this is an honorable resignation. He and the entire bureaucratic and nomenklatura guild are shown that he was dismissed for mistakes, moreover, he is kept in the personnel reserve.

The new Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva is a professor, doctor of historical sciences, author of about 150 scientific papers. Born in 1960, in the 1990s she worked at the Center for the History of Religion and Church at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 2002, he has been the head of the Department of Religious Studies of the Russian Academy of Civil Service. Member of the Council for the preparation of programs for the course "Patriotic History" under the Ministry of Education and Science.

The main area of ​​her scientific interests is the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, the relationship between the state and religion. An interlocutor close to the current leadership of the Ministry of Education and Science told Vedomosti that the appointment of Vasilyeva is "a spit in the direction of modernization ideas." “This is the appointment of an extreme conservative who advocates the priority of religious education. It's just a guard," he said.

In the presidential administration, Olga Vasilyeva held the position of deputy head of the department for public projects. As a propagandist for the ideas of conservatism and patriotism, Vasilyeva has repeatedly spoken at closed meetings-seminars for participants in the All-Russian Popular Front, governors, teachers, officials of the Kremlin administration, The Insider reports. At one of these seminars for United Russia members, Vasilyeva discussed, in particular, the role of the church in the Russian state and how Joseph Stalin during the war revived pre-Soviet traditions that worked for the unity of the nation.

Because elections are coming soon

Today is a holiday for the guys, the pioneer rejoices - and no, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria did not come to visit us, as they say later in this nursery rhyme of the Stalin era. For us - for students, their parents and their teachers - something much more joyful happened: Putin fired the Minister of Education. Dmitry Livanov, who turned into an extremely odious figure, was replaced by an employee of the presidential administration, Olga Vasilyeva, who was practically unknown to the general public.

And so that all the numerous "fans" of the ex-minister of education rejoiced even more, they treated him in the same style in which the Russian tsars treated the boyars who fell into disgrace. Dmitry Livanov, of course, was not put on the stake. But the new position granted to him by Vladimir Putin sounds like an outright mockery. The Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Trade and Economic Relations with Ukraine - against the background of the current "good" relations between Moscow and Kyiv, the owner of such a "dust-free job" is not to be envied at all.

What is the reason for such interesting personnel changes? In order to answer this question, it is enough to take a quick look at the calendar. The decree on the resignation of Dmitry Livanov was signed by VVP on August 19. And in less than a month - on September 18 - elections to the State Duma are to be held in the country. Naturally, our government is interested in Russian voters approaching this event with the utmost responsibility - they voted properly. And the Kremlin also understands that in order for voters to vote properly, they need to create a variety of incentives to the maximum. The resignation of Dmitry Livanov is one of such incentives. In the best pre-election traditions, the now former Minister of Education was made a "ritual sacrifice."

Of course, voters are not fools either. If they had a choice, they would prefer not "the minister's head on a platter", but something more material and tangible - for example, some additional social payments or other good news of a financial nature. And it is possible that in the few weeks remaining before the elections, such “good news” will still follow. But the fact that the government began the process of cajoling voters with a demonstrative flogging of the Minister of Education does not surprise me at all. As our dear Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently said, "there is no money." The state does not have the physical ability to indulge citizens with "bread". Therefore, it is necessary to focus on "spectacles".

Although the newly appointed Minister of Education Olga VASILIEVA is not known to the general public, a poster with her photo and a quote surprisingly turned up on the territory of the Tavrida Youth Forum. It was there that President Putin came after he announced the resignation of Livanov.

But this is all, as they say, the political side of the issue - a side that is of great interest to the Russian political elite, but not to the broad masses. Citizens of the Russian Federation are worried about something else: will it be possible to reverse or at least slow down the process of progressive degradation of the education system that is clearly emerging in our country with the help of a change of minister? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is far from clear.

To be honest, until today I did not even suspect the existence of Olga Vasilyeva, whom the GDP appointed as the new Minister of Education. But her previous position sounds like deputy head of the Kremlin's public projects department. And in my eyes, this is a kind of quality mark. The head of this department, Pavel Zenkovich, despite his non-publicity, is one of the brightest Kremlin officials, a man of action, a figure who is not interested in creating unnecessary papers as much as possible, but in real changing our lives for the better.

Perhaps this assessment of mine is overly subjective and personal. But I am inclined to give Olga Vasilyeva a fairly significant credit of trust. However, is it enough to change the minister of education in order to change for the better the state of affairs in this extremely important area of ​​our life for all? It seems to me that the change of the minister can only be the beginning of the process of getting our education system out of the impasse in which it is now. If everything is limited to the change of minister, then things are bad.

I do not consider myself a great authority in the field of pedagogy. But in order to give our education system a two or a one, this, in fact, is not required. Once upon a time, the Soviet education system allowed the USSR to catch up and overtake the United States in the technological race. The modern Russian model of public education has real chances to throw our country into the third world. We found ourselves in a trap created by a combination of incompetence, quite good and even noble ideas, and an ill-conceived transfer of Western educational standards to our soil. As a result, schools and universities are churning out "specialists" who are not able to think and do not know the basics, but who are brilliant at putting a tick in the box.

Based on all this, I want to address our authorities with the most serious petition - to address not as a journalist, but as an elector: thank you, good gentlemen, for the gift in the form of Livanov's dismissal. I don’t know about others, but I really appreciated this gift. But remember that the next day after the election, life in the country will not end and the need to improve things in the field of education will not disappear. I hope that before the 2018 presidential election, the Kremlin will not have a reason to give the population another gift in the form of the dismissal of the now new Minister of Education - the current heroine of the day, Olga Vasilyeva.

Personnel pandemonium continues. There are no surprises - there is a month left before the elections. The best time to appoint new people - there is a media effect, but not a real one, they simply do not have time to screw up.

The new victim is the Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov. His resignation did not surprise anyone; in the government, Livanov has long turned into a whipping boy. There are such people - so unpopular that they are kept in order to be removed at the right time for the sake of a reputation bonus. And now the moment has come: Medvedev, in his usual manner, talked to the teachers (“let them go to striptease if the salary is not satisfactory”, or something like that), but they still have to count votes for EP. Why punish the prime minister when there is a special Livanov for such things?

The minister was indeed unpopular. Especially among their subordinates - scientists, university leaders, school teachers. Not only did he pursue an unpleasant policy, but he was also naturally gifted with the special negative charisma of a Soviet official - the ability to quickly and effectively turn people against himself, without really doing anything for this. Livanov's resignation was delighted by everyone who dealt with the minister's office. A convenient figure: it is clear that Livanov himself did not invent his own policy - he was given tasks, he solved them. But he was an unpleasant person, and dissatisfaction with the decisions made from above turned into dissatisfaction with him personally. The minister himself tried quite conscientiously. It turned out ... according to Chernomyrdin - "as always."

Russian science and Russian education are full of problems. “The best Soviet education in the world”, if it once existed in the world (which we strongly doubt), has now turned into ruins. Science, higher education, school - all this requires reform, moreover, systemic and conceptual. And it’s not the damned nineties that are to blame here, but mostly the already semi-legendary Soviet era.

About science: I think everyone agrees that the Academy of Sciences has long turned into a bureaucratic department, which is much more interested in useful subordinated areas than any science. The reason is the Soviet class system with an absolutely anachronistic system of "scientific degrees", for which different varieties of sausage and household plots relied (most of all it resembles a medieval guild). Well, where is the hierarchy and sausage, there is clanism and feudal intrigue - is it up to science here when you need to share six acres?

About the higher education system: it is destroyed, primarily because in the Russian Federation the university gives first the status, then the right to hang out from the army, and only then education (optional). The statement that “the majority of the population of Russia does not need a higher education”, which so outraged everyone, is an absolute truth. Communication shops and provincial offices are full of masters in economics and PR who know absolutely nothing about economics and PR. These people spent five years of their lives (the best five years) on an empty ritual - fighting yawning and falling asleep in lectures, playing on the phone, then going to drink, at the end they give a crust so that mom falls behind. In the Russian Federation, there is a monstrous inflation of higher education, which hits, among other things, those universities where they really teach something.

Well, the post-Soviet school, a huge vicious circle of methods, teaching staff, state relations. It is especially funny that teachers (people, for a moment, directly responsible for shaping the future) and school principals have long turned into the main "Putin's state employees" and an organic part of the corruption system. And it's not just about forging elections (that's okay), but simply about collecting tribute from parents and students. “My first corruption in my life”, a set for children from eight years old. What can a plump fifty-year-old aunt teach your child, who regularly humiliates herself in front of the next Churov and shakes money “to repair the class” little by little, because “such is life”? It is clear why - to be a good Russian.

In short, there are a lot of problems in Livanov's department, and he did not solve any of them. And where I tried, it turned out as always - to take a unified state exam, which on paper looked quite reasonable, but in practice turned into a monstrous religious rite, in preparation for which children are simply forgotten to be taught to write (a curious interview was published a month ago by an associate professor of journalism at Moscow State University - he admits there that modern freshmen, after ten years of preparation for placing checkmarks in tests, write by ear like Tajik guest workers). The matter is absolutely not facilitated by the Kremlin, which every now and then tries to adapt the school to something useful in the economy: “Let's scam patriotic education for children? And if Orthodoxy is added? Listen, maybe send them for potatoes, huh? Livanov's resignation is unlikely to change anything here.

Another thing is interesting: Livanov could at the very least be called a technocrat, that is, a technical specialist who stands outside the ideology, "we were given a task - I solved the task." His successor is a man of ideas and fury. Which will do all the same, only with a twinkle and administrative excitement. Why the end result will only get worse.

The public has already noticed that Livanov followed in the footsteps of another unpopular minister - Zurabov. Togo, too, was demonstratively removed at the right time and sent as an ambassador to Ukraine. But now there is already one ambassador, and besides, he is simply not allowed into Kyiv. Therefore, Livanov got the post of special representative for commercial and industrial relations. The former minister was put on the bench. Sent to gather dust in the closet - so, just in case. Will they take him out? We are in the Russian Federation, they can get it.

Anton Popov (S&P)

PS. Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed eight generals from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

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Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Dmitry Livanov resigned on Friday, August 19. He headed the department for more than four years. According to the presidential decree, Livanov was appointed special presidential envoy for trade relations with Ukraine. Olga Vasilyeva, an employee of the presidential administration, has been appointed the new Minister of Education. According to Russian reality, education ministers are among the most unpopular in the country. This sad tradition did not bypass Dmitry Livanov either. lists what initiatives and decisions he was remembered by the Russians.

How they dealt with inefficient universities

Dmitry Livanov said that it is necessary to "cleanse" the Russian higher education system from inefficient universities. The first monitoring of the effectiveness of higher education institutions was carried out in 2012, the year Livanov was appointed minister. In total, according to Rosobranadzor, about 800 universities and branches have been deprived of their licenses since 2013. Most often, the quality of education cannot be confirmed by non-state educational institutions and state branches.

And it seems like a good idea, but for some unknown reason, the criteria for the effectiveness of universities were not their scientific reputation, but the area of ​​\u200b\u200bpremises per student and the number of foreign graduates.

It's funny and sad that on these grounds such universities as the Russian State University for the Humanities and the Moscow Architectural Institute turned out to be "ineffective".

How budget places in universities were going to be reduced

Accusations of a desire to reduce budgetary places in the universities of Minister Livanov were pursued from the beginning of his term to this day. And all because in his very first interview as a minister, he told Rossiyskaya Gazeta that the number of students studying at universities at the expense of the state should be reduced. Since then, Livanov has had to annually refute rumors about cuts in budget places. Interestingly, since 2013, the number of such places has only increased. However, according to RBC, in the summer of 2016, the Cabinet of Ministers approved documents stating that in 2017-2018 the number of state-funded places in universities may still be reduced. And immediately more than 100 thousand.

How universities united

Minister Livanov carried out the unification of universities in order to increase their efficiency. According to him, this was required because of the current demographic situation in Russia: universities with a small number of students, in his opinion, can only survive if they merge with larger ones. Many institutions actively protested against such a decision. So, in 2016, a petition against the merger of RCTU with MISiS received 20,000 signatures.

How the RAS was reformed

Minister Livanov managed to achieve a hostile attitude towards himself even from scientists. Livanov called the Russian Academy of Sciences "unpromising and unviable." In 2013, he launched a reform of the academy, as a result of which the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences were merged with the Russian Academy of Sciences. Also, as a result of the reform, the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FANO) was created, the functions of which were charged with managing the property of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2016, a group of scientists consisting of more than a hundred people addressed the president with an open letter stating that FASO contributed to the collapse of Russian science and demanded that it be reassigned to the Russian Academy of Sciences.

How plagiarism in dissertations was eradicated

Even in the first year of his work, Dmitry Livanov said that it was necessary to fight plagiarism and bribery in universities. Already in 2013, the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC) began to fight plagiarism in dissertations. As a result of the work of this commission, several high-ranking officials lost their jobs. Among them is Deputy Minister of Education and Science Igor Fedyukin. Also, the deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education and the head of the department at the PRUE them. G.V. Plekhanov Vladimir Burmatov, director of the Specialized Educational and Scientific Center of Moscow State University Andrey Andriyanov, head of the staff of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Astrakhan region Daniar Batrashev and others.

How the Altai University lost its rector

Minister Livanov was also remembered in the Altai Territory. Especially at the Altai Technical University, whose rector he dismissed in May 2016. The official reason is non-compliance with the deadlines for submitting documents for accreditation. As a result, the university nevertheless received accreditation, but not for all areas. 11 destinations remained unaccredited.

Minister of Education and Science Dmitry left his post, an official was appointed in his place. Earlier today, unconfirmed information about the resignation of the minister, who has held this post since 2012, was leaked to the media. The fact that the resignation of the head of the department was already discussed the day before was confirmed to Gazeta.Ru by two sources in the education system at once.

“In recent days, it has been in the air,” a source in the Ministry of Education told Gazeta.Ru.

Shortly thereafter, the resignation of the minister was officially confirmed - it was accepted by President Vladimir.

The decision on this was announced by President Vladimir Putin in Crimea, where he arrived to meet with members of the Security Council, as well as to visit the All-Russian Youth Forum "Tavrida".

Vladimir Putin agreed with the proposal of Prime Minister Dmitry a to appoint Olga Vasilyeva, an employee of the presidential administration, as the new head.

At the same time, it became known about the new position of the former minister: Livanov will become the special representative of the head of state for trade and economic relations with Ukraine. “Okay, we will do that, I agree,” Putin said, responding to Medvedev's proposal during a meeting at the Belbek military airfield near Sevastopol.

At the same time, Putin dismissed the special representative for the development of trade and economic relations with Ukraine. The relevant decree published on the official portal of legal information.

At a meeting with the head of state, Medvedev noted that the government had intensified work on priority projects, including in the field of education. “In order to bring to life the ideas that have been formulated, new approaches and new powers are required, and in some cases new people,” the prime minister said. “To replace Dmitry Livanov, I would propose to appoint a woman, Olga Yuryevna Vasilyeva, who has a good track record,” the head of government emphasized.

It is known that on August 20, Livanov was supposed to attend the All-Russian Pedagogical Meeting in, which is taking place these days. The Ministry of Education and Science reacted to the resignation in the following way: “The Ministry of Education and Science is faced with the tasks aimed at developing education and science in Russia, including ensuring the availability of quality education for all segments of the population as the basis of social mobility, ensuring the current and future needs of the economy and the social sphere in professional personnel necessary qualifications, creation of conditions for the development of continuous education, creation of conditions for the development and effective use of scientific and technical potential. The Ministry is focused on fulfilling the tasks set and continues to work as usual, concentrating on preparing educational organizations for the start of the academic year.”

The new position of Livanov - the president's special representative for trade and economic relations with Ukraine - was previously held by former ambassadors to Ukraine: Mikhail Zurabov and. After the resignation of Mikhail Zurabov, Russia proposed a candidate to replace him, and the Ukrainian side refused to approve his figure. Therefore, at the moment, the interests of Russia in Ukraine are represented by a charge d'affaires, and the issue of appointing a new ambassador is suspended. Now, due to the absence of the ambassador, part of his functionality for trade and economic cooperation will be entrusted to Special Representative Livanov.

“As for the diplomatic representative, the ambassador (in Ukraine), we will talk separately. But the development of trade and economic ties should be in the field of our constant attention,” President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. “This is not a diplomatic job, and Livanov will now be engaged in purely economic relations, albeit in cooperation with the Russian trade mission,” explains Gazeta.Ru's interlocutor in the diplomatic environment. Before the Crimean referendum and the conflict in Donbas, Ukraine was one of Russia's leading economic partners. However, today the economic relations of the countries have degraded. The export of services from Ukraine to Russia in 2014 fell by more than half compared to 2013.

It is known that, as the Minister of Education, Livanov promoted quotas in universities for refugees from Ukraine.

In any case, Livanov will have to establish new connections in this country. Most of his acquaintances in Ukraine are Yanukovych government officials who left the political arena after the revolution. A Ukrainian political scientist suggested that Livanov would become Russia's unofficial ambassador to Ukraine, since Ukraine did not agree to Babich's candidacy. “Therefore, such a neutral option was chosen, an ambassador-understudy, an unofficial, illegitimate, non-status representative of the president, who will actually begin to pave the way for ambassadorial functions and, in fact, will largely play the role of an ambassador,” the expert told Interfax-Ukraine.

The positions of Dmitry Livanov were among the weakest among the members of the government. United Russia regularly criticized Livanov in the Duma, at the beginning of the year of his United Russia party.

“Livanov's work does not find support in the party. We repeatedly criticized his activities, but there was no reaction, ”an interlocutor close to the leadership of the United Russia explained in February the negative attitude of the party members.

Unofficially, there were rumors in academic circles and those close to the Kremlin that the head of the committee on corruption or the chairman of the Duma committee on education could become the new minister of education.

Criticizing Livanov's speech at the government hour at the beginning of the year, Nikonov said that in his report the minister avoided the real problems that concern pupils, students, scientists and teachers - for example, lowering the literacy of young people entering universities, delays in paying salaries in the regions . According to him, “after it was forbidden to make business a nightmare, everyone rushed to make nightmares of schools, kindergartens and universities.”

The resignation may work to increase the rating of United Russia, political analyst Abbas is sure. According to him, much depends on the official interpretation of the resignation. “You should not hope that we supposedly dismissed an unpopular minister and that is enough. The very fact of his resignation indicates not only that the government is cleaning itself up, but also that there are serious problems in the industry. If serious explanatory work is not carried out, then the dominant point of view may become that all reforms in the education system have failed and the authorities are desperately looking for a switchman, ”Gallyamov argues.

Meanwhile, Livanov consistently defended the interests of the ministry in terms of funding.

As Gazeta.Ru found out, at the end of July, at one of the meetings with Dmitry Medvedev from the ministry, that in the event of a reduction in funding in 2017, 40% of budget places in universities will have to be reduced, there will not be enough money for scholarships for students, and without work by 2019, 10.3 thousand researchers from universities, the Russian Academy of Sciences and will remain.

During the reign of Livanov, there was also criticism of the minister from the scientific community, connected not only with the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences. For more than three years, the media have been constantly reporting scandals related to the written-off dissertations of various officials, but the fighters against plagiarism in dissertations were dissatisfied with the actions of the ministry to improve the situation.

Contrary to the requests of Dissernet activists, from January 1, 2014, the statute of limitations for appealing candidate and doctoral dissertations in Russia began to be ten years, while those who defended their dissertations before 2011 can now not worry about written off scientific work.

“I want to ask Vasilyeva the following questions: will you fire plagiarist rectors (more than 70), and if not, why not? Will you dissolve those dissenting councils that distributed false dissertations (the lists were transferred to the Ministry of Education and Science and the Higher Attestation Commission and were published on Dissernet many times)? Will you withdraw from the expert councils of the VAK those persons who contributed to the defense of false dissertations? asks the co-founder of Dissernet.

It is known that Olga Vasilyeva moved to the ministerial post from the position of deputy head of the public projects department of the presidential administration.

This department is headed , and the work of the structure is supervised by the first deputy head of the presidential administration .

Previously, Vasilyeva worked in the government's department of culture. In 2013, she gave a closed lecture on patriotism in front of Kommersant. At the lecture, the official talked about the unification of the people under Stalin during the war, this happened, in her opinion, through the popularization of pre-revolutionary Russian history and literature. One of Gazeta.Ru's sources describes her as the author of 160 articles and eight monographs, coming from a school and scientific environment.

According to the source, she interacted with the party in power, lectured as part of the Candidate project, and her “lectures were with shades of moralizing, looked like propaganda.”

At first, the new minister will have to make great efforts to gain support in this environment and prove his effectiveness, the deputy head believes.

Sociologists noted that Livanov is the most unpopular minister and most respondents rate his activities at two points.

Vasilyeva at the end of June spoke at the All-Russian Youth Educational Forum "Territory of Meanings on the Klyazma". According to the forum's website, she chose the history of "the formation of the national idea of ​​Russia - from the period of formation to the present" as her topic. “Our country is the only country in the world that after 1917 in 1991 experienced the second socio-political crisis. Both in the post-revolutionary period until 1934, and in the period from 1991 to 2002, they did not talk about patriotism, the very concepts of patriotism, love for the Fatherland, heroism were eradicated, absent from the public mind, ”said the official.

On Klyazma, she talked about the patriotism of the heroes of the Second World War. “Vassilyeva, as a history teacher, noted the importance of addressing in this upbringing both to the biography of individual personalities of the military era, and to the heroes of our time, such as who died on March 17, 2016 in the line of duty during the battles for the city of Palmyra in Syria, or - a Russian officer who, at the cost of his life, saved his subordinate soldiers during the explosion of a combat grenade, ”the forum website says.

Two different sources of Gazeta.Ru reported that Vasilyeva is deeply religious and personally acquainted with Patriarch Kirill. Vasilyeva holds the position of head of the department of state-confessional relations at the RANEPA. The sphere of scientific interests of Vasilyeva is the history of the Russian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century, state-church relations in the Soviet period. The total work experience in the field of education is 36 years. Vasilyeva is a doctor of historical sciences and a member of the International Association for the History of Religions.

The first deputy chairman of the synodal department of the Moscow Patriarchate for relations between the Church, society and the media said that after the appointment of Olga Vasilyeva to the post of Minister of Education and Science, the dialogue between the state will acquire a “more meaningful” character. “I have no doubt that the dialogue will be easier and more productive,” Shchipkov said.

The State Duma Committee on Education welcomed the news of Livanov's resignation positively. Committee member from Oleg Smolin added that he personally knows Olga Vasilyeva well

"as a person with a position in defense of Russian education."

“I understand that the minister is a partly forced person, he is obliged to play according to the rules that are proposed to the government team as a whole. But I hope that Olga Yuryevna will use her powers as a minister in order to preserve the best that is still left in our education system. I hope that the course of educational policy will be, if not changed, then at least significantly adjusted,” the parliamentarian stressed. He explained that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation hopes, in particular, that under Vasilyeva it will be possible to “initiate changes in the federal target program for the development of education” or at least stop the rate of reduction in the number of universities - according to , the five-year plan to reduce the number of universities and their branches has already “overfulfilled ”, and the communists hope that the Ministry of Education will at least slow down. The head of the committee, Vyacheslav Nikonov (United Russia), noted that Livanov and Vasilyeva are “different people”: “Livanov is a tough technocratic leader who is used to pushing his decisions through his knees. And Vasilyeva is a man of meanings, a man of dialogue, a conversation that will establish a dialogue with the pedagogical community.”