Arseniy Yatsenyuk says funds from gambling legalization to finance Ukrainian cinema
Prime Minister of
Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk proposes
to adopt a bill on the legalization of gambling in the Parliament. Funds
received will be used to finance cultural projects, including the Ukrainian
cinema. The
Head of Government said this at a meeting of the Culture Ministry Board of
Ukraine on Friday, June 26.
Today, Arseniy Yatsenyuk has emphasized,
Ukraine spends billions on defense and national security: "If anyone
thinks that we are given loans to fill tanks and finance Ukrainian soldiers – you
are wrong. We
have no right to spend a penny from this loan on the national economy, everything goes to repay foreign debt, which we did
not contracted."
In order to get
additional income and finance culture, Arseniy Yatsenyuk has proposed to approve a bill aimed at withdrawal
from the shadows and legalizing gambling. The
Prime Minister has informed that today he held a meeting on the issue with MPs,
including those who criticize this initiative: "It is important to pull it
out of the shadow business - there are not dozens, but hundreds of millions who
now disagree on the pockets. I do not promise
that everything will be spent on culture, but a significant part will go to
finance cultural projects, including the Ukrainian cinema."
Arseniy Yatsenyuk believes that the legalization of gambling can
provide the budget with funds for Ukrainian cinema in Q4 of this year, as well
as financing for 2016.
He proposed to
create a public-private partnership to finance patriotic films: "Our offer
- 50 to 50. We give half and the other half – TV channels. For
example, for Ukrainian patriotic short films."
He highlighted
the importance of the domestic film industry’s development, as the war, waged
by Russia, "involves the worst tools – a lie, myths and Goebbels’ propaganda,
in which Russia is the leader from the times of the USSR’s KGB."
"This is not the war between the armies. This is the war of one world against another, darkness against light. It is the war between the past with the future. And in this war Vladimir Putin uses all the means: language, culture, history and values. And so now we are fighting for the survival of the civilized free world, the true European values," Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.