Putin has ordered restrictions on the screening of foreign films
During a meeting of the Council on Culture, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin demanded that the Russian Ministry of Culture speed up the implementation of quotas on foreign films.
The Russian dictator was outraged by the delay in preparing the relevant documents, which director Nikita Mikhalkov had complained about.
The main goal of the new restrictions is to displace Western content from Russian movie theaters in favor of domestic productions and films from “friendly” countries.
Putin stated outright that Russia “ideologically tolerates mindless things” and called for an end to the indirect subsidization of foreign film production through market access.
Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova justified the delay by citing the “technical complexity” of the process, but was ordered to implement the quota system as soon as possible.
Putin cited the experience of China and France, where, in his words, everything is “strictly structured” in the interests of domestic producers.
“We discussed how to organize the quota system in our country from a legal standpoint, how to make it legitimate—from the perspective of rights holders, distributors, and cinema chains,” Lyubimova explained the complexity of the situation, to which Putin responded with a demand to act more decisively.
Separately, the dictator mentioned negotiations with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who proposed joint film production.
Putin expressed outrage that Russia appears to be less ideologically protected than China: “Well, why are we just sitting here with our mouths agape? We’re letting through ideologically absurd things we don’t need, and we’re not financially supporting our own producers.”
As a reminder, the Russian government has submitted amendments to the State Duma that effectively expand the grounds for military operations outside the country.
Putin would also consider the seizure of even two centimeters of Ukrainian territory a success.
