Penza, 20 September 2016. PenzaNews. The deputy chairman of the government of the Penza region, head of the regional department of the Russian Historical Society Oleg Yagov offered to develop a bill on protection of intangible cultural heritage in Penza.

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He aired this initiative at the II International Scientific and Practical Conference “Russian Science and Culture: Past and Present",” which took place in the framework of the festival “Zhar-Ptitsa” on Tuesday, September 20.

Oleg Yagov’s proposal was preceded by a report of Ekaterina Dorokhova, candidate of art criticism, deputy General Director for Science of the State republican center of Russian folklore, a senior researcher at the State Institute of Art.

“Up until now, Russia has had no legal instrument which would be called upon consolidation and regulation of the state policy in the field of traditional folk culture, or, as they now say, the cultural heritage. In the field of material cultural heritage, artifacts, there is a law for their protection, but intangible things are unprotected,” she marked the problem.

Ekaterina Dorokhova noticed that none of the developed legislation in this area was adopted.

“The model law on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted by the Assembly of the CIS in December 2012, was rejected by Russia, while Russian experts created it. Currently, a draft of such a law is discussed in the committees of the State Duma, but so long there is no positive reaction,” she explained.

Oleg Yagov said in turn, that he had already discussed the report of Ekaterina Dorokhova with Alexander Eremkin, deputy chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region.

“Let us adopt a resolution on the level of the Penza region at the end of the conference, and therefore, prepare a similar bill in the Penza region,” the deputy chairman of the regional government suggested.

Oleg Yagov’s words were greeted with thunderous applause.

The head of the regional department of the Russian Historical Society hoped that Ekaterina Dorokhova would assist in the work on the regional bill.

“I will help, because I was one of the authors of that very model law,” she assured.

As Victor Kondrashin, member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Committee for Science, Education and Culture explained, there were many defects in that bill.

“Including those relating to the fact what non-material culture is, how it can be protected in terms of copyright, it may turn out in material claims when performing folk songs,” he said, stressing that the law, however, was not rejected.

“We need to think, to work on it to escape negative consequences, in order to make the treasury of spiritual, non-material culture publicly available and free of charge,” Victor Kondrashin concluded.