Doers' letter. An open letter from cultural figures to Vladimir Putin

About 500 artists from 60 Russian cities appealed to President Vladimir Putin with a request to protect the constitutional rights of their colleagues accused in the Seventh Studio case.

Among the signatories of the letter are directors Dmitry Brusnikin, Maxim Didenko, Dmitry Volkostrelov, actors Ksenia Rappoport, Anatoly Bely, Nikita Efremov, actor and director Veniamin Smekhov, documentary filmmaker Marina Razbezhkina, artist Pavel Kaplevich, poet Igor Irteniev, playwright Alexander Gelman, theater director Elena Doc Gremina, artistic director of the "Stanislavsky Electrotheatre" Boris Yukhananov, chief director of the Voronezh Chamber Theater Mikhail Bychkov, as well as leading theater critics and journalists, heads of regional theaters, teachers of theater universities, theater historians and culturologists.

President Russian Federation, head of state, guarantor of the Constitution, rights and freedoms of man and citizen Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!

We, representatives of the cultural community of the country, are extremely alarmed by the course of the trial in the so-called “Seventh Studio” case. Before our eyes, respected people: the former artistic director of the Seventh Studio Kirill Serebrennikov, its former producers Alexei Malobrodsky and Ekaterina Voronova, her former director Yuri Itin and former director of the Department state support of Arts and Folk Art of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation Sofya Apfelbaum - they are trying to accuse of fraud on an especially large scale, and even of creating a criminal group for this purpose.

We admit that you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, are not sufficiently informed or misled about this investigation, which shocks us with the unfairness of the trial and the demonstrative cruelty of representatives of law enforcement agencies, employees of the Investigative Committee and the prosecutor's office. And besides, it creates tension within the community, provokes panic and fear of the arbitrariness of representatives state system, restricts people of culture in initiatives and projects.

Many of us regularly attend the courts in the Seventh Studio case, all without exception follow the progress of the case, which is covered in detail in the press. And literally each of the court sessions - both the district instance and the Moscow City Court - demonstrates the grossest violations of the current legislation and human rights.
Therefore, we consider it our civic duty to inform you of egregious violations by law enforcement agencies. The following are just some of the circumstances that demonstrate the violations committed during the consideration and investigation of the case and cast doubt on the legality, impartiality and fairness of the actions of the investigative and judicial bodies involved in the case.

1) So far (seven months after the start of the investigation!) the prosecution has not offered any other evidence of the guilt of the defendants, except for the testimony of the former accountant of the Seventh Studio, Nina Maslyaeva, also accused in the case. Her testimony varies from session to session and, according to lawyers, is in its purest form a slander. Moreover, there is just evidence for this: on September 13, 2017, the person involved in the case, Aleksey Malobrodsky, being in the same paddy wagon with Maslyaeva, but in the next compartment, heard the investigator assure Maslyaeva that after testifying against two more defendants, she would be released under house arrest. This episode was recorded by a video camera. On this fact, Malobrodsky wrote a complaint to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee, which remained unanswered. That is, in this moment all defendants in the case are deprived of their liberty on the basis of Maslyayeva's slander alone. While the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights states that people who have entered into a pre-trial agreement with the investigation - and Maslyayeva concluded it, which is reflected in the case file - cannot testify against other persons in the same case.

2) Producer Aleksey Malobrodsky spent the first month in custody without initiating a criminal case against him at all! This became clear only at the court session, which considered the issue of extending this measure. Employees of the Investigative Committee forgot about such a necessary formality, apparently confident that even a violation of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation will get away with it. And so it happened. The court session to extend the detention was postponed to the next day, and the investigation showed a circus trick - a decision to initiate a criminal case, created at 10.30 in the morning on the day of the session, at which the case of Maslyaeva and Itin merged with the case of Malobrodsky that did not exist before. From such arrogance and lawlessness, even prosecutor Malofeev was perplexed, refusing to support the petition of investigator Lavrov to extend Malobrodsky's detention. That did not prevent Judge Dudar from doing this.
Article 108 p. 1.1. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation indicates that detention as a measure of restraint cannot be applied to a suspect or accused of committing crimes under Articles 159-159.3. However, Aleksey Malobrodsky, a man with an impeccable reputation in the theatrical community, and in addition, who worked in the Platforma project for the shortest time, less than a year, has been in custody for almost six months, and this preventive measure has been extended to him until January 19, 2018.

3) We also do not understand why the rest of the defendants in the case, who occupy leading positions in the leading theaters of the country, were chosen as a measure of restraint in the form of house arrest - contrary to the Decree of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 41 of December 19, 2013, which emphasizes that the right to freedom is a fundamental human right, and therefore "measures of restraint that restrict freedom - detention and house arrest - should be applied only when the use of a milder measure of restraint is not possible." You yourself, Vladimir Vladimirovich, delivered a message to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation two years ago, in which you called for non-custodial measures of restraint during the investigation of economic crimes. At the moment, the three leading theaters of the country - the Yaroslavl Drama Theater. Fedora Volkova, the Russian Academic Youth Theater and the Gogol Center are working without their leaders, which cannot but have a negative impact on the work of these institutions and on Russian culture generally.

4) The investigation demonstratively ignores the demands of lawyers to comply with the law. In particular, the courts of appeal regularly reject the requirement to check documents before considering appeals, which violates Art. 389.13 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, indicating that a decision to consider appeals without checking documents can only be made with the consent of the parties. And the documents to which the lawyers appeal do not give us a single reason to suspect our comrades and colleagues, already deprived of their liberty, of involvement in any theft, but we see hundreds of posters, critical articles, video clips confirming that the Platform » Intensive activities were carried out, requiring millions of investments.

5) The investigation in its actions descends not only to revenge for the defendants' refusal to slander colleagues, but also to outright lies. At the appeal court on December 4, 2017, the lawyer of the former general director of the Seventh Studio, Yuri Itin, Yuri Lysenko, said that the investigation was “pushing the accused heads off”. According to him, his client never slandered Kirill Serebrennikov and Alexei Malobrodsky and did not confirm the fact of fraud on their part. While Kirill Serebrennikov (which Serebrennikov immediately confirmed personally) was told that Itin gave such testimony against him.

6) There are numerous inconsistencies in dates and times in the case documentation. According to the lawyer of Alexei Malobrodsky, Ksenia Karpinskaya, the documents indicate that one of Maslyayeva's daughters testified on July 17, 2017 from 10.00 to 12.45 in the building of the pre-trial detention center to the investigator Sereda - while the investigator Sereda was at the Basmanny court at that time. In the same incredible way, investigator Vasilyev at the same time and on the same day, July 12, 2017 at 19.00, interrogated both the second daughter of Maslyaeva and Aleksey Malobrodsky in different locations. The second lawyer of Malobrodsky, Yulia Lakhova, at a meeting in the Moscow City Court on September 6, 2017, cited the Resolution on the extension of the preventive measure, which cites Maslyaeva’s words that in the period from 02/01/2014 to 04/08/2014, she, being the chief accountant of the Seventh Studio and following instructions CEO and the general producer - respectively, Itin and Malobrodsky - provided illegal translations with the help of unidentified persons Money. While Malobrodsky worked at the Seventh Studio only until August 2012! Such inconsistencies are cited by lawyers literally at every court session. Agree, such an investigation can hardly be called fair. This means that we are dealing with the violation of another human right and a citizen of the Russian Federation - the right to a fair trial, which is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

7) The consideration of the case also ignores the presumption of innocence, shifting to the accused the proof of their own innocence and exerting pressure to admit the commission of crimes.

8) Finally, there is an argument that is not regulated by any documents and laws, but which, in our deep conviction, should be decisive in making any decisions in a civilized society. This argument is mercy. All seven months, starting from the day of the first searches, on May 23, 2017, when the actors and other employees of the Gogol Center, who were innocent and had nothing to do with the case, spent five hours locked in the hall and under the guns of machine guns, employees of the special services , investigating authorities, courts and prosecutors show extreme cynicism and inhumanity. Alexei Malobrodsky, for whom everyone who knows him is ready to vouch for himself, is brought to get acquainted with the documents in handcuffs and fastened to bailiffs. And to all the arguments of the lawyers about changing the preventive measure for him, they answer only one thing: Malobrodsky's health allows him to be in custody. The world-famous film director Kirill Serebrennikov is detained while filming a film in St. Petersburg and taken by bus to Moscow all night. At a meeting of the Moscow City Court on December 6, 2017, investigator Seredina, in response to the assertion that the arrest of Kirill Serebrennikov’s property is an excessive restriction, since Serebrennikov is dependent on an 84-year-old father after a major operation and an 82-year-old mother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, states that Serebrennikov formally is not the guardian of his parents - and Judge Gaidar takes the side of the prosecution.

We, representatives of the Russian cultural community, appeal to you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, as a guarantor of the rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen of the Russian Federation, able to protect our colleagues - the defendants in the Seventh Studio case - from arbitrariness and stop discrediting justice in our country.

The letter is open for signature.
If you belong to the Russian cultural community and would like to put your signature on the letter, please write to:

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!

A few days ago, on behalf of supposedly "all representatives creative professions» You have been called upon to break the Constitution and remain president for a third term - although you have repeatedly stated that you do not intend to do this.

We inform you that no one has given the signatories of this appeal to Nikita Mikhalkov, Zurab Tsereteli and others the right to represent the entire community of cultural figures. The very fact that they allowed themselves this is an outrageous fact, and simply indecent. Such an appeal casts a shadow not only on those who signed it, but also on you as president, during the years of whose rule, unfortunately, many manifestations of the cult of any Kremlin ruler, so characteristic of Soviet times, have been restored.

But it's not only that. More importantly, many people of science and art, including us, categorically disagree with Mikhalkov and Tsereteli in essence.

We are convinced that under no pretext you should remain the head of state - neither in the status of president, nor in the form of some kind of "national leader" to whom the Basic Law of Russia is not written. Your age and energy will allow you to realize your potential in any field of activity - in politics, economics, public life. But you cannot remain the head of state. And they should not, in our opinion, build ingenious combinations in front of the entire nation in order to remain at the helm. This humiliates Russia and its citizens.

This is the position, believe me, of a significant part of the intelligentsia. Nevertheless, we do not undertake to speak on her behalf. We address you only on our own behalf. We hope that when your constitutional term expires, we will be able to thank you with a clear conscience for your respect for the law.

Marietta Chudakova, literary historian

Oleg Basilashvili, BDT actor, People's Artist of the USSR

Natella Boltyanskaya, journalist, bard

Sergei Yursky, Moscow Art Theater actor, People's Artist of Russia

Yuri Avvakumov, artist

Alexander Gelman, playwright, publicist

Oleg Khlebnikov, poet

Denis Dragunsky, writer, publicist

Vasily Aksenov, writer

Andrey Smirnov, film director

Avdotya Smirnova, playwright, director

Among them are Vasily Aksenov, Sergei Gandlevsky, Andrei Smirnov, Avdotya Smirnova, Yuri Bogomolov, Henrietta Yanovskaya, director and producer Andrei Stankevich, People's Artist of Russia, laureate of state awards Igor Yasulovich, artist Andrei Bilzho, writer Alexander Kabakov, screenwriter Tatyana Kaletskaya, people's artist of Russia, director Kama Mironovich Ginkas, Permian writers Nina Gorlanova and Vyacheslav Bukur

Cultural figures published an open letter to President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with a request to stop the "flagrant incompetence" of the Ministry of Education and Science, which, according to the authors, is doing everything to destroy educational institutions of a creative orientation.

President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev
Prime Minister of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin
To the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
To the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation
To the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation
To the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation

OPEN LETTER

Creative educational institutions are on the verge of death. The reason for this is the flagrant incompetence of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, which is doing everything to ensure that nothing remains of the best creative education in the world. Here are just some of the facts.

Children's art schools for unknown reasons are assigned to the system additional education and are in an extremely vulnerable position. To close them, the order of the head of the municipality is sufficient. In recent years, hundreds of creative schools have closed in the country, and this is far from the limit.

Music universities annually lose dozens of talented applicants due to the need to accept not by talent, but by the results of the Unified Exam. Rectors fearfully await the final introduction of the Bologna system, when future dancers, singers, musicians will be divided into bachelors and masters. The principles of this division in the creative sphere, apparently, are not clear even to the department itself.

Every spring and autumn, it's time to get excited for the country's numerous musical theaters. Ballet dancers and musicians can be taken into the army at any time, as the deferral for them has been canceled. This monstrous decision was made in 2008. For some reason, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Education and Science did not understand that after a year of service to the Motherland, the dancer would no longer be able to return to the stage. Meanwhile, the state spent hundreds of thousands of rubles on his education for 7 years!

Law No. 83-FZ “On budget institutions which will deprive them of funding. The state has already announced to universities and colleges that soon they will have to pay almost 100% public utilities. There is every reason to believe that officials will not stop there. There are two ways out: either teach for money, or close creative schools, colleges, universities.

We demand:

1. Return all institutions of creative education without exception (from children's art schools to higher educational institutions) in full subordination of the Ministry of Culture.

3. Provide decent funding for creative educational institutions and abolish the pernicious norms of Law No. 83-FZ “On Budgetary Institutions” in relation to them.

4. Put things in order in the remuneration of employees of educational institutions of a creative orientation.

Nikolai PETROV, President of the Russian Academy of Arts, professor at the Moscow Conservatory, People's Artist of the USSR;

Oleg TABAKOV, artistic director and director of the Moscow Art Theatre. A.P. Chekhov, People's Artist of the USSR;

Vladimir SPIVAKOV, President of the Moscow International House of Music, Artistic Director of the State Chamber Orchestra "Moscow Virtuosos", People's Artist of the USSR;

Vladislav KAZENIN, Chairman of the Union of Composers of Russia, Deputy Minister of Culture of the USSR in 1987-1990, Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR;

Andrey KONCHALOVSKY, film director;

Dmitry BERTMAN, Artistic Director of the Helikon-Opera Theatre, Head of the Department of Musical Theatre, RATI, People's Artist of Russia, Professor.

http://www.argumenti.ru/education/n279/96471/

Published on 06/27/12 09:11

Among the signatories are Chulpan Khamatova, Mikhail Zhvanetsky, Yuri Shevchuk and many other prominent personalities.

More than a hundred of the most famous writers, musicians, actors and other cultural figures signed a special appeal in support of the girls from the Pussy Riot group under arrest. Letter sent to Supreme Court Russia and the Moscow City Court. Full text of this message was published on the Ekho Moskvy website.

The appeal notes that the signatories "evaluate the moral and ethical side of the actions of the participants in the February action in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior differently." However, the signatories agree that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich intcbatch should be released from custody and criminal prosecution stopped.

“We believe that Pussy Riot's actions are not a criminal offence. The girls did not kill anyone, did not rob, did not commit violence, did not destroy or steal other people's property. Russia is a secular state, and no anti-clerical actions, if they do not fall under the articles of the Criminal Code, can be a reason for criminal prosecution,” the letter says.

“The criminal case against Pussy Riot compromises the Russian judicial system and undermines confidence in the institutions of power in general... While the protesters are in custody, an atmosphere of intolerance is growing in society, which leads to its split and radicalization. We do not see any legal grounds and practical sense for further isolation from society of these young women who do not pose any real danger. Moreover, two of them are young mothers,” conclude the authors of the appeal.

List of signatories:

1. Oleg Basilashvili, actor

2. Chulpan Khamatova, actress

3. Eldar Ryazanov, director

4. Evgeny Mironov, actor

5. Liya Akhedzhakova, actress

6. Mikhail Zhvanetsky, writer

7. Sergei Yursky, actor

8. Natalya Tenyakova, actress

9. Igor Kvasha, actor

10. Alexei German, director

11. Svetlana Karmalita, screenwriter

12. Alexei German Jr., director

13. Roman Viktyuk, director

14. Mark Zakharov, director

15. Andrei Konchalovsky, director, producer

16. Andrey Makarevich, musician

17. Pavel Chukhrai, director

18. Alexander Proshkin, director

19. Andrey Proshkin, director

20. Yuri Arabov, writer

21. Andrey Smirnov, director

22. Avdotya Smirnova, director

23. Kirill Serebrennikov, director

24. Valery Meladze, musician

25. Fedor Bondarchuk, director, producer

26. Svetlana Bondarchuk, publisher

27. Emmanuil Vitorgan, actor

28. Maxim Vitorgan, actor

29. Iosif Reichelgauz, director

30. Kama Ginkas, director

31. Henrietta Yanovskaya, director

32. Harry Bardin, director

33. Pavel Bardin, director

34. Dmitry Bertman, director

35. Grigory Chkhartishvili, writer

36. Lyudmila Ulitskaya, writer

37. Veronica Dolina, poet, musician

38. Andrey Zvyagintsev, director

39. Vladimir Mirzoev, director

40. Dmitry Krymov, director

41. Yefim Shifrin, actor

42. Nikolai Tsiskaridze, ballet dancer

43. Maxim Sukhanov, actor

44. Evgenia Dobrovolskaya, actress

45. Kirill Kozakov, actor

46. ​​Elena Koreneva, actress

47. Julia Menshova, actress

48. Igor Gordin, actor

49. Daria Moroz, actress

50. Natalya Negoda, actress

51. Julia Snigir, actress

52. Pavel Derevyanko, actor

53. Alexander Yatsenko, actor

54. Alexey Devotchenko, actor

55. Irina Rakhmanova, actress

56. Evgeny Pisarev, director

57. Dmitry Chernyakov, director

58. Boris Khlebnikov, director

59. Alexey Popogrebsky, director

60. Konstantin Bogomolov, director

61. Alexey Fedorchenko, director

62. Daria Ekamasova, actress

63. Vladimir Kott, director

64. Alexander Kott, director

65. Anna Melikyan, director

66. Olga Dykhovichnaya, actress, director

67. Angelina Nikonova, director

68. Polina Osetinskaya, musician

69. Elena Gremina, playwright

70. Sergey Shargunov, writer

71. Dmitry Bykov, writer

72. Viktor Shenderovich, writer

73. Elena Rayskaya, playwright

74. Lev Rubinstein, poet

75. Vitaly Mansky, director

76. Marina Razbezhkina, director

77. Kirill Razlogov, film historian,

78. Alexander Zeldovich, director, screenwriter

79. Nikolai Lebedev, director

80. Boris Grebenshchikov, musician

81. Diana Arbenina, musician

82. Gleb Samoilov, musician

83. Alexey Romanov, musician

84. Leva Bi-2, musician

85. Roma Zver, musician

86. Leonid Barats, actor

87. Sergey Petreykov, actor

88. Rostislav Khait, actor

89. Evdokia Germanova, actress

90. Maxim Kurochkin, playwright

91. Alexander Rodionov, screenwriter

92. Alexander Atanesyan, director, producer

93. Alexey Steblev, musician

94. Natalia Ryurikova, gallery owner

95. Mikhail Ugarov, director, playwright

96. Vyacheslav Durnenkov, playwright

97. Mikhail Durnenkov, playwright

98. Oleg Dorman, director

99. Andrey Khrzhanovsky, director, screenwriter

100. Alexander Rastorguev, director

101. Pavel Kostomarov, director, cameraman

102. Leonid Desyatnikov, composer

103. Yuri Shevchuk, musician

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"Just a vile film": deputies and cultural figures about the "Death of Stalin"

The reason for the revocation of the rental certificate from the comedy "The Death of Stalin" was a letter from cultural figures to Minister Vladimir Medinsky. But, as the BBC Russian Service found out, not all of the signatories of the letter watched the comedy and participated in the work on the appeal.

Under a request to ban the film by British director Armando Ianucci, Russian cultural figures, including directors Nikita Mikhalkov, Vladimir Bortko and Sergei Miroshnichenko, deputy Elena Drapeko, chairman of the Union of Composers Rustem Kallimulin, Marshal Zhukov's daughter Era Zhukova and others. “We very much ask you, dear Vladimir Rostislavovich, as a historian, and just as a citizen, to personally carefully watch this film and make, in our opinion, the only right decision - not to allow it to be shown in Russia,” the appeal said.

• The Ministry of Culture of Russia withdrew permission to show "Death of Stalin"

The letter stated that the images of some historical figures were distorted in the comedy: "Zhukov is presented simply as a militant clown, and this, by the way, is an outstanding commander, a talented strategist, a marshal of the Soviet Union."

Shortly after the letter was sent, the rental certificate was indeed revoked. The BBC Russian service spoke with some of the comedy's opponents and found out why they opposed the film and who wrote the very appeal to the Minister of Culture.

Vladimir Bortko, director, State Duma deputy from the Communist Party

I did sign the letter. They made it up somehow in a crowd, all together. I was at the viewing of The Death of Stalin, however, I was a little late. I came, looked for 15 minutes and left - that was enough for me.

Then we just signed a letter with Drapeko. I don't know whose initiative. Who wrote the text? Pushkin, Alexander Sergeyevich! What difference does it make who wrote the text, I agree with him.

Who wrote the text? Pushkin, Alexander Sergeyevich! Vladimir Bortko, director

My father lost his leg near Stalingrad. My mother was badly injured there. I signed because my parents would roll over in their graves. On the eve of the anniversary of the battle, the screening of this film seems to me, to put it mildly, vulgar. If it were shown in July in Sochi at 22:45 after the restaurant, it would be wonderful. But now it is inappropriate.

As a member of the Communist Party, I am even more against this. Because my leader Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, who always remains him, is simply slandered. By the way, there are those who remember how Winston Churchill, a respected politician, brought the sword gift of King George to Joseph Vissarionovich. We remember this, and the British must remember - write it, please.

(The Sword of Stalingrad was forged by special decree of King George VI of Great Britain as a token of admiration for the courage shown by the Soviet defenders of Stalingrad. Churchill handed it over to Stalin in November 1943- BBC) .

Era Zhukov, daughter of Marshal Georgy Zhukov

I didn't see the film, they just told me about it in great detail, which caused my indignation and indignation. I was told about it by people who were present at the show on January 22. It doesn't matter who told, but I know about the film from the words of the people who were present there. I myself did not watch the film, no one invited me to this official screening.

I didn't watch the movie myself. But I can imagine what Era Zhukov did there, the daughter of Marshal Zhukov

But I can imagine what they did there. I trust the people who were there. I have some idea what was in the film, I was also indignant and asked that if there were any appeals, they would also join me.

I don’t know how you don’t understand: if there is mockery of the people who saved us from the Nazis, you can’t show it. We must not allow anyone to mock our generals. My poor father still gets it.

If a film deserves to be banned, it should be banned, it's not about censorship, it's about protecting our youth from harmful influences.

Yuri Rozum, Russian pianist, head of the Department of Special Piano at the Russian Academy of Music. Gnesins

I didn't like the film very much, and I signed the letter. The picture is very skillfully done. I do not want to use extreme words, but this, in my opinion, is a mediocre movie. Parodies are unfunny, uninteresting. Gathering of idiots - everyone is yelling, running around, killing some fat torso is happening [ probably refers to the scene of the murder of Lavrenty Beria - BBC]. True, I must say that I did not watch from the very beginning, there was a concert. But I was even glad that I lost more than an hour and a half and did not come to the beginning.

Everyone is yelling, running around, the murder of some fat torso is happening Yuri Rozum, pianist

Everything is unreliable. An absolutely wrong picture of what happened in these important points Russia. I took the film as a mockery and joined the letter.

We spoke unanimously - both the guests of the show and the public council under the Ministry of Culture. Starting with Nikita Mikhalkov, ending with lawyers and legislators. The idea of ​​the letter was proposed by the lawyers of the Ministry of Culture, and we supported it at the enlarged meeting of the public council. Who specifically wrote the letter? I think the legal department.

We expressed our attitude - this film should not appear on our screens. We have grown up a whole generation that is not aware of what dramas happened to the country. Will they, in the absence of other information - and this is a shortcoming of our cultural figures - be judged by this film? This is a catastrophe.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The comedy of British director Armando Ianucci "The Death of Stalin" angered Russian cultural figures

Mikhail Lermontov, First Deputy Chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Culture

The public council, in accordance with the law, must be engaged in public control. We must monitor the exercise of our powers. Therefore, I made an appeal to the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika.

If we talk about the legal side of the text of my letter, it is based on the current legislation, which prevents the spread of information flows that violate the foundations of the state system and public security. I decided to apply to the prosecutor's office to issue a warning to the Ministry of Culture about the inadmissibility of making decisions that could lead to such consequences.

I decided to write a letter after seeing where I was. After the show, there was a special meeting of the public council, where colleagues spoke out. I announced at the same meeting that I intended to issue a letter. I made it myself, under it is only my signature.

There is also a letter signed by cultural figures to the Ministry of Culture. It was not initiated by me, but just by the meeting of the public council after the film. I also signed this petition. Who is its direct author, I do not know - it came to me in the finished content.

Alexander Galibin, director, People's Artist of the Russian Federation

I was in the hall, I watched this movie. I don’t know who brought the letter, I don’t know who wrote it, but this is a letter from the public council under the Ministry of Culture, and yes, I agree with everything that is written there. Who wrote it, I do not know. It seems to me that everything is clear with this picture. This is not a subject for conversation at all, this picture is of no value either from a historical point of view or from an artistic point of view.

The comedy "The Death of Stalin" is based on the comics of the Frenchmen Fabien Nouri and Thierry Robin, which are still being published today. The main characters of the film were Nikita Khrushchev, played by Steve Buscemi, Vasily Stalin (Rupert Friend), Georgy Zhukov (Jason Isaacs), and pianist Maria Yudina (played by actress Olga Kurylenko).

Discussions about a possible ban on the film in Russia began last fall, when Pavel Pozhigailo, who at that time held the post of head of the public council under the Ministry of Culture, said that the association was going to pay special attention to the film. Despite the controversy, the Ministry of Culture issued a rental certificate to the film. And withdrew it on January 23.