Without censorship is better than with censorship

Dmitry Medvedev condemned censorship and aggression against artists. With such a statement, the Prime Minister made the Forum of United Russia “Culture - National Priority” in Novosibirsk, according to the party’s official website.

According to Medvedev, there are cases in the country when “aggression and intolerance” manifests itself in artists, which is sometimes embodied in “criminal acts” and comes down to “the pursuit of the author whose works no one have yet seen.” The prime minister called for "being much more tolerant" in relation to cultural figures.

In addition, Medvedev opposed the influence of officials on art. "The narrow -political approach to culture in normal modern society is simply unacceptable. If we do not want to return at a time when the culture was harshly regulated from above, then we all need to take into account this, including officials, politicians." The prime minister said. "And in general, any cherished authority needs to be seduced by the artist, what should he do. This is not all remembered, but not everyone remembers, but all remembers. This, it seems to me, is the most important principle of communication between power and creative people. "

On April 17, the head of the State Duma Commission on the Control and Expenses of Deputies, Natalya Poklonskaya, published the results of the examination of the film by Alexei Matilda and sent them to the Prosecutor General. The conclusions of the examination say that the image of Nicholas II depicted in the film cannot but insult religious feelings and not humiliate the human dignity of a significant part of Orthodox Christians. ”

At the end of January, a certain organization "Christian state - Holy Russia" sent letters with threats to the cinemas. "If the film" Matilda "is released, cinemas will be burned, maybe people will suffer. We officially notify: any banner, poster, leaflet with information about the rental of the film will be considered as a desire to humiliate the saints of the Orthodox Church and a provocation to the" Russian Maidan, "the letters said.

On October 24, 2016, the head of the Satyrikon Theater Konstantin Raikin spoke at the congress of the Union of Theater Workers with a speech against censorship in art . Raikin called the closure of a number of performances and exhibitions "an ugly assault on freedom of creativity" and stated that art "is trying to return in Stalin's times."

At the end of March 2015, the Novosibirsk Theater excluded the Tannheiser opera from the repertoire in the production of Timofei Kulyabin. The Russian Orthodox Church spoke out against the opera’s show, since according to her plot, Jesus Christ acts as a hero of an erotic film. As a result, the Minister of Culture dismissed the director of the theater Boris Mazhnich. The coma, in relation to Kulyabin, tried to initiate affairs under "extremist" articles 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Offenses and 282 of the Criminal Code.