Interview with Petr Aven about the Venice Biennale and state of Russian contemporary art (Milena Orlova/Artkhronika, in Russian):

Q: Do you mean that the State doesn't take an ideological line in art?
A: No. The State has a certain ideology - to an extent it's liberal, to an extent it's an ideology of power and empire, as before. Contemporary artists are all very different, each with a different perception of the world, so the relationship between artists and the State is not straightforward.