who last month threatened to “smelt” his Oscars in public if Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wasn’t invited to the 94th Academy Awards, made the assertions in a number of interviews on US television.Penn told The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC that Ukraine is “going to win this thing…it’s a certainty.” He pressed on the unity of the nation, adding: “It’s an exciting moment in history…They look at each other and they say we’re together.”The actor, who was in Ukraine recently to make a documentary film about Russia’s invasion, said that President Zelensky was an inspiration for the American people.“This is freedom of thought and true leadership that is just so moving. It’s the kind of moving that we need to be able to get [to the US], which is borderline a kind of populist lap dance of a nation at this point.
Ukraine-Born Producer Alexander Rodnyansky Responds After Russia’s Defense Minister Demands His Work Be Removed From “Cultural Agenda”
18.03.2022 - 02:57 / deadline.com
Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has called for the country to ban all the work of Ukraine-born super-producer Alexander Rodnyansky as well as any film and TV work of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Russian news site The Insider.
In the report, Shoigu, who is part of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, is said to have sent an official letter (pictured below) to Russia’s minister of culture asking for both Rodnyansky and Zelensky’s work to be “excluded from the cultural agenda” in Russia. The move comes as various informal cultural sanctions have been issued upon Russia since the country began its invasion into Ukraine on February 24.
The letter, which was leaked to the press, has been translated to Deadline from a well-known source. It states the following:
“As part of a special operation, the Ministry of Defence is taking measures to shape a positive public opinion of Russian citizens in support of the country leaders and the actions of the Russian armed forces. At the same time, in the cultural sector of the Russian media space, films and TV programs with the participation of V.A. Zelensky continue to be shown, as do the creative projects of a major Ukrainian media manager, A.E. Rodnyansky.
“Popularization of these persons in the current conditions does not contribute to the implementation of decisions taken by the country leaders and the Russian Ministry of Defence.
“Taking into account the above, I ask you to work through the issue about the exclusion of V.A. Zelensky and A.E Rodnyansky from the cultural agenda of the Russian Federation.”
Rodnyansky, who is behind a slew of esteemed international festival hits like Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan and Loveless, which both earned Oscar nominations for
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