Christopher Vourlias Despite widespread calls to boycott Russian cinema in the wake of the Ukraine invasion, the Cannes Film Festival struck an uneasy compromise by banning state delegations and Russians with ties to President Vladimir Putin while allowing individual filmmakers to attend.It’s a decision iconoclastic Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov was quick to support on the eve of the world premiere of his latest feature, “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” which bows in competition on May 18.The director was a no-show at his last two Cannes premieres due in no small part to a history of provocation and dissent against the Russian government. But Serebrennikov – who after a nearly five-year legal ordeal learned on March 28 that he could leave Russia a free man – insists that the type of subversive cinema he creates should be separated from pro-Kremlin propaganda and the “paranoid ideology” of the Putin regime. “Russian culture is about the fragility of life.
Putin suffers fresh blow in Ukraine war as ninth general killed in combat
02.05.2022 - 17:37 / dailyrecord.co.uk
Vladimir Putin has lost his ninth general to the war in Ukraine along with 15,000 Russian troops killed over the course of the invasion, according to reports.
Major-General Andrei Simonov, 55, was killed during fighting in Izyum near Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, Ukrainian sources claim.
The 55-year-old served with the 2nd Combined Arms Army and was Russia's most respected electronics warfare commander, according to the Mirror.
He died in a ferocious Ukraine counter attack against a Russian offensive where more than 30 Russian armoured vehicles were destroyed along with around 100 Russians troops, unconfirmed reports allege.
Along with the loss of nine generals, Putin army has also had 36 colonels kills in just over two months of combat in what military experts are calling an astonishing rate of attrition.
Losing senior military members can be a sign that an army is suffering from ill discipline as generals and colonels are required to take control of their forces on the front lines.
Putin has now sent his chief of defence staff General Valery Gerasimov to take personal command of the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Sinonov’s death alongside 100 Russian troops - and the reported loss of armoured vehicles - indicates another setback for the Kremlin leader who aimed to declare the success of his mission on 9 May, Victory Day in Russia, marking the anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
He is far from the only high profile military man to lose their life in the course of the invasion.
Lieutenant General Andrey Mordvichev, one of Putin’s most senior commanders and in charge of the 8th All-Military Army of the Kremlin’s vast Southern Military District, was killed at the beginning of March.
So was Colonel
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