In accordance with Russian Ministry of Culturethe American movies “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” do not respond to traditional Russian morals and intellectual values, while limiting the screening of foreign films in his view enhances the domestic production of films and series.

On August 1, the vice president of the State Duma (lower house) Vladislav Davankov, who belongs to the “New People” faction, proposed showing films from “unfriendly countries” without the consent of the film’s rights holders, so that Russian viewers could see the American films “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” in cinemas ».

The Deputy Minister of Culture Andrey Malyshevresponding to Davankov, said: “We believe that the films you have proposed for viewing by the citizens of the country do not meet the goals set by the state to preserve and strengthen traditional Russian moral and spiritual values,” such as Novaya Gazeta Europe points out (a copy of the document is available to the TASS agency).

He points out that the coffers of Russian cinemas have been “saturated with quality domestic premieres” recalling the release in 2023 of the family film “Cheburashka”, the film “Challenge” shot in space, as well as the film “Martyr” which applauds Russia’s war in Ukraine. The film “Martyr” which had a budget of 200 million rubles, and which was financed by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Culture, in four days saw receipts of less than 7 million rubles.

Malyshev claims that representatives of the film industry point to the positive side of the decrease in the number of Hollywood films, because this boosts the increase in the production of Russian films and series.