SERB activists attacked the founder of Artdocfest, Vitaly Mansky. They called it a “reverse performance” in response to his picket with underpants in support of Navalny

On April 9, activists of the radical pro-Kremlin movement SERB attacked director Vitaly Mansky, the founder of the Artdocfest festival. This happened in the Moscow cinema "October".

As the press service of the festival told Meduza, a group of activists initially tried to get into the press hall, and then, when they were not allowed in, met Mansky in the lobby as he was walking from one hall to another. They asked the director for a comment and, having received an answer that he could not give it yet, they began to pursue Mansky.

According to the press service, one of the activists, who had a rag in his hands, took it from both sides and tried to throw it on the director from the back. He dodged. After that, the activists left the building. The organizers of the festival called the police, but they did not come.

Immediately after the incident, Mansky told Dozhd that one of the activists “tried to intercept his throat with some kind of cloth,” but did not harm him. “I am absolutely whole, healthy and full of strength,” the director added.

SERB spokesman Gosha Tarasevich, in a commentary to Rise , said that he did not consider the attack an attack - and that it was a "performance". According to Tarasevich, the activists wanted to ask the director “why he invites films that pour dirt on Russia to his festival,” and he began to run away from them and insult them.

Then we just threw underpants in his face, on his head, made such a performance. Remember, he once stood at the Lubyanka with his underpants in his hands, and we, as it were, threw him a reverse performance. And he went to fight. But this is just ridiculous. That's the whole situation. She's not worth a damn.

On December 22, Mansky went out to the FSB building for a picket, holding blue shorts in his hands - similar ones appeared in the conversation between Alexei Navalny and the alleged FSB officer Konstantin Kudryavtsev, who could participate in the operation to poison the politician. The director was detained, subsequently he was fined 10 thousand rubles.

This is not the first time SERB activists have come to the current Artdocfest. On April 7, they tried to disrupt the screening of the film "The Road Home" about a Crimean resident who left the peninsula after it was annexed to Russia. Activists didn't like the word "annexed" in the movie's announcement, so they called the police.

In addition to SERB, the organizers of Artdocfest face opposition from officials. They had to cancel the festival in St. Petersburg after Rospotrebnadzor sealed the halls of the House of Cinema, accusing the organizers of violating anti-coronavirus restrictions. In addition, two films were removed from the screening at Artdocfest: A Quiet Voice about a gay man from Chechnya (due to threats) and Doazuv/Border about the territorial conflict between Chechnya and Ingushetia (due to the lack of a distribution certificate in Russia). ).

Grigory Levchenko