Ukraine bans all Russian movies released since 2014
The Ukrainian parliament has banned all Russian films released after January 1, 2014, saying the move is aimed at improving “national security.”
The ban is an amendment to the Law on Cinematography that was adopted by the Ukrainian parliament in 2015.
Some 237 Rada (Ukrainian parliament) deputies voted in favor of the new measure.
The original version of the law banned Russian films that fall within the military genre made from 1991, which were dubbed as “propaganda” by the Ukrainian authorities. Now, the fresh amendment bans all films produced or showcased after 2014 in all genres.
More than 430 Russian films and TV series fall under the new measures.
The explanatory note to the amendment says its aim is “to perfect the legal mechanisms of defending Ukraine’s national security in the information sphere by limiting all sorts of propaganda used by an occupant-state.”
Kiev believes that Crimea’s reunification with Russia through a referendum was annexation by military force, rather than a democratic exercise in self-determination.
The new law is the latest in a series of anti-Russian measures that have been introduced by Kiev in the Ukrainian film industry. Besides keeping a blacklist of Russian movies, the Ukrainian Culture Ministry also has a list of more than 80 Russian and foreign actors, filmmakers, singers and other cultural figures, whose presence in the country is undesirable as they are deemed to "threaten national security."
Last month, the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting in Ukraine removed 15 Russian TV channels from being broadcast in Ukraine.
