{"id":9564,"date":"2026-04-04T21:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T21:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/9564\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T21:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T21:40:10","slug":"putins-new-law-blackballs-any-flick-not-making-russia-look-great-again-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/9564\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin\u2019s new law blackballs any flick not making Russia look great again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

Margo Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken in the 2023 movie “Barbie,” Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in 2005’s “Brokeback Mountain” and Vladimir Putin<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken cancel culture to a whole new level.<\/p>\n

A legislative ban signed by the strongman went into effect March 1 and targets films that \u201cdiscredit Russia\u2019s traditional spiritual and moral values,\u201d reported The Moscow Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even before the ban, the Russians had already blacklisted a slew of major motion pictures<\/a> from the US, including \u201cBarbie,\u201d \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d \u201cJojo Rabbit,\u201d \u201cThe Interview\u201d and \u201cBorat,\u201d according to British outlet Metro.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cBarbie,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBarbie,\u201d released in 2023, stars Margot Robbie as the doll come to life and Ryan Gosling as her boyfriend, Ken. \u00a9Warner Bros\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

The new law gives Russia\u2019s Ministry of Culture<\/a> sweeping powers to slam the curtain down on films that don\u2019t make the ideological cut.<\/p>\n

That means Putin\u2019s henchmen can yank such films from cinemas, streaming services, and even social-media platforms.<\/p>\n

Films deemed \u201cnot worthy\u201d by the Kremlin are those promoting LGBTQ+ relationships, advocating a \u201cchild-free\u201d lifestyle, or criticizing government authorities.<\/p>\n

And Putin\u2019s wrath can go beyond just canceling films.<\/p>\n

Theater owners who dare to screen something officials deem unworthy of Russia\u2019s highest ethics could face hefty fines and other penalties.<\/p>\n

\"Russian<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s government has passed new legislation that went into effect on March 1, giving them additional powers of censorship over films the Russian people are allowed to see. POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

James Franco and Randall Park in the 2014 comedy film \u201cThe Interview.\u201d Park stars as North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. \u00a9Columbia Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

Once the state watchdog Roskomnadzor, or Russia\u2019s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, flags a film \u2014 theaters and streaming platforms have 24 hours to pull it or face fines that get progressively worse.<\/p>\n

Non-compliance means fines which could reach $200 for individuals, $20,000 for officials, and $10,400 for legal entities. If violations are repeated, the fines get steeper, with individuals facing up to $3,150, officials up to $8,400, and legal entities up to $52,500, according to the new legislation.<\/p>\n

Roskomnadzor will handle enforcement if the content is not removed. Cases will be adjudicated by district courts.<\/p>\n

The move is part of a broader tightening of state control of culture and media in Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cOppenheimer\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOppenheimer\u201d is a 2023 biographical drama that stars Cillian Murphy in the title role as J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the \u201cFather of the Atomic Bomb.\u201d \u00a9Universal\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The 2005 film \u201cBrokeback Mountain\u201d stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as 19-year-old cowboys who fall in love in 1963 and carry on a 20-year clandestine affair. \u00a9Focus Films\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

That same year, Russia passed legislation banning LGBTQ+ \u201cpropaganda\u201d both on screen and in public life. \u201cBrokeback Mountain\u201d was banned shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cLGBT today is an element of hybrid warfare and in this hybrid warfare we must protect our values, our society and our children,\u201d said Alexander Khinshtein, a senior legislator.<\/p>\n

State-controlled Gazprom Media Holding has\u00a0even claimed it spent \u201cseveral hundred million rubles\u201d developing an automated system to scan video content for anything that might violate the Kremlin\u2019s definition of \u201ctraditional values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cJojo<\/p>\n

\u201cJojo Rabbit\u201d is a World War II satire released in 2019 following Johannes \u201cJojo\u201d Betzler, a lonely 10-year-old German boy in the Hitler Youth whose goofy imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler. Kimberley French<\/p>\n

The new ban will significantly expand the list of films which can be barred<\/a>, reported the Memorial Human Rights Defence Center.<\/p>\n

Films portraying a Russian or a person of Russian descent as anything other than the bearer of the highest spirituality and impeccable morality or as an antagonist, a criminal or even a person with bad habits face censorship, according to a 2022 presidential decree.<\/p>\n

When TV shows aren\u2019t banned outright, the English-to-Russian dubbing gets rewritten to fit the official narrative, said a New York Times report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cBorat!<\/p>\n

\u201cBorat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan\u201d is a 2006 black comedy, which stars Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakh journalist traveling through the US. \u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

In the CBS comedy series \u201cGhosts,\u201d for example, references to the marriage between two gay characters were translated as a \u201cfriendship alliance.\u201d The episode about their marriage ceremony was cut entirely, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Of course, brutal censorship isn\u2019t exactly new in Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrime and Punishment\u201d author Fyodor Dostoevsky was arrested in 1849 for participating in a \u201cradical\u201d intellectual group, and after a mock execution, thrown into a brutal Siberian prison camp for four years.<\/p>\n

For filmmakers today, the message from Moscow is crystal clear: the script may belong to the artists, but the final cut belongs to the state.<\/p>\n

with Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Margo Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken in the 2023 movie “Barbie,” Heath Ledger and Jake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[8673,8666,8667,8668,8665,8674,8672,8671,8670,329,8669,328],"class_list":{"0":"post-9564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vladimir-putin","8":"tag-borat-sagdiyev","9":"tag-brokeback-mountain","10":"tag-everett-collection","11":"tag-heath-ledger","12":"tag-jake-gyllenhaal","13":"tag-james-franco","14":"tag-legislative-ban","15":"tag-margo-robbie","16":"tag-randall-park","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-ryan-gosling","19":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116348611771074901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}