Vladimir Putin has demanded that Western films be banned in Russia, according to major media reports. In a public speech, Putin raged at his culture minister Olga Lyubimova for her tardiness in enforcing new rules on film restrictions. He also called for a quota system to heavily restrict foreign films. Putin claims he is protecting Russians from destructive ideological influence from outside, and in 2022, he stated that the US and its allies are a threat to Russia and decided that Russian traditional values should be strengthened.
A court in Chelyabinsk banned the distribution of the documentary 'Mr Nobody Against Putin' on three online video platforms, according to major media reports. The court upheld a request from the Russian state prosecutor's office to remove the documentary, with the prosecutor claiming it gave a 'negative attitude' to Putin's war against Ukraine and his government. The documentary, which won an Oscar as best documentary this month, depicts a small-town Russian teacher documenting how ordinary people, especially children, are drawn into the Kremlin's wartime propaganda system. Pavel Talankin, a Russian school videographer, won the Academy Award together with US filmmaker David Borenstein for the documentary; Talankin fled Russia with smuggled footage and now openly opposes the war, and he was instructed to film propaganda lessons by the school administration and secretly teamed up with the US director.
Well, why are we just talking? We ideologically allow in some completely stupid and unnecessary [films], and financially we don't support our own producers.
Russia's human rights council said images of minors were used in the documentary without parental consent, according to major media reports. The council requested that the Academy (Oscars) and UNESCO launch an investigation. Moscow has not yet commented on the substance of the film, and state-controlled media largely ignored the Oscar award for the documentary.
Much Western content is already blocked in Russia, including social media like Facebook and Instagram, messaging apps like Signal and Viber, and chat forums like Discord, according to official sources. Foreign journalism has been stifled and books censored in Russia, according to official sources.