Russia's culture minister is off the hook for his controversial dissertation

Update: Spokespeople for Russia's Education and Science Ministry say the ministry is preparing an order against the revocation of Medinsky's doctorate.

The Presidium of the Russian Higher Attestation Commission has refused to endorse claims against the history doctoral dissertation of Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, who personally attended the session where the decision was made on Friday, October 20.

The Presidium sided against findings by one of the commission’s own expert council, which characterized Medinsky’s dissertation as “unscientific” and recommended revoking his doctorate. The Ministry of Education and Science will make the final decision on his academic degree.

In 2011, after receiving a doctorate in political science, Vladimir Medinsky defended his dissertation on “problems with objectivity in interpretations of Russian history in the second half of the 15th-17th centuries.”

In 2016, three historians filed a complaint that Medinsky’s dissertation misused historical sources and failed to provide evidence for many of his claims. Belgorod State University later rejected these allegations.