Netflix is just an American plot, says Russian culture minis
Jun 24, 2016 9:41:16 GMT 9.5
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Post by Willow on Jun 24, 2016 9:41:16 GMT 9.5
Netflix is just an American plot, says Russian culture minister
stranger things have been true ....
The Kremlin has accused the global film streaming company Netflix of being part of an American plot to subvert Russian society and culture.
Vladimir Medinsky, the minister of culture who is a loyal supporter of President Vladimir Putin, said that the film streaming service was on the US government payroll along with Silicon Valley giants.
He explained his theory to a Russian news service. The White House had realised “how to enter every home, creep into every television, and through that television, into the head of every person on earth, with the help of Netflix”.
“It turns out that our ideological friends [the US government] understand perfectly well which is the greatest of the arts,” he said in an allusion to Lenin’s famous phrase about the propaganda power of cinema.
“And you thought, what — that all these gigantic start-ups appear by themselves? That some boy student thought something up and billions of dollars flutter from above?”
The CIA funded art exhibitions, musicians and Hollywood films during the Cold War. Many Russians believe these efforts continue.
Mr Medinsky is well known for his patriotic outbursts against Western culture. New rules decreed that licences would be refused to films “defiling the national culture, posing a threat to national unity and undermining the foundations of the constitutional order”.
Homegrown productions are as much a target as foreign ones. An acclaimed film by Andrei Zvyagintsev, Leviathan, about corruption and brutality in a coastal town, was nominated for an Oscar last year.
Mr Medinsky branded the film opportunistic and said that the director was more interested in “glory, red carpets and statuettes” than the fate of his characters. Taxpayers should not pay for films that openly spit on the government, he said.
Zvyagintsev said the minister’s criticism was a violation of expression.
Mr Medinsky, 45, has also followed the Soviet line of denying that Tchaikovksy was gay, in defiance of most biographers.
Some in the arts turn up their noses at Mr Medinsky, who is seen as a Putinite functionary despite his PhD in history. After he promised to deny funding to films denigrating Russia, one MP in the State Duma quipped: “We are not afraid of the minister of culture. We are afraid of the culture of the minister.”
Mr Medinsky made his provocative remarks about Netflix as he set out an argument for increasing funding of Russian cinema, to combat the dominance of Hollywood films.
Netflix, which makes House of Cards, in which Kevin Spacey’s president must deal with his Russian counterpart, was launched in Russia in January.
The state media watchdog has requested a meeting with the company. Officials have suggested that it could be blocked if it failed to pay taxes or produce 30 per cent of its content locally.
stranger things have been true ....
The Kremlin has accused the global film streaming company Netflix of being part of an American plot to subvert Russian society and culture.
Vladimir Medinsky, the minister of culture who is a loyal supporter of President Vladimir Putin, said that the film streaming service was on the US government payroll along with Silicon Valley giants.
He explained his theory to a Russian news service. The White House had realised “how to enter every home, creep into every television, and through that television, into the head of every person on earth, with the help of Netflix”.
“It turns out that our ideological friends [the US government] understand perfectly well which is the greatest of the arts,” he said in an allusion to Lenin’s famous phrase about the propaganda power of cinema.
“And you thought, what — that all these gigantic start-ups appear by themselves? That some boy student thought something up and billions of dollars flutter from above?”
The CIA funded art exhibitions, musicians and Hollywood films during the Cold War. Many Russians believe these efforts continue.
Mr Medinsky is well known for his patriotic outbursts against Western culture. New rules decreed that licences would be refused to films “defiling the national culture, posing a threat to national unity and undermining the foundations of the constitutional order”.
Homegrown productions are as much a target as foreign ones. An acclaimed film by Andrei Zvyagintsev, Leviathan, about corruption and brutality in a coastal town, was nominated for an Oscar last year.
Mr Medinsky branded the film opportunistic and said that the director was more interested in “glory, red carpets and statuettes” than the fate of his characters. Taxpayers should not pay for films that openly spit on the government, he said.
Zvyagintsev said the minister’s criticism was a violation of expression.
Mr Medinsky, 45, has also followed the Soviet line of denying that Tchaikovksy was gay, in defiance of most biographers.
Some in the arts turn up their noses at Mr Medinsky, who is seen as a Putinite functionary despite his PhD in history. After he promised to deny funding to films denigrating Russia, one MP in the State Duma quipped: “We are not afraid of the minister of culture. We are afraid of the culture of the minister.”
Mr Medinsky made his provocative remarks about Netflix as he set out an argument for increasing funding of Russian cinema, to combat the dominance of Hollywood films.
Netflix, which makes House of Cards, in which Kevin Spacey’s president must deal with his Russian counterpart, was launched in Russia in January.
The state media watchdog has requested a meeting with the company. Officials have suggested that it could be blocked if it failed to pay taxes or produce 30 per cent of its content locally.