The Real Russia. Today. A love story set after the Leningrad siege, Russia wants Tinder to share user data, and a media exec wins a defamation case against a woman who says he raped her

Monday, June 3, 2019

This day in history: 27 years ago, on June 3, 1992, Boris Yeltsin issued an executive order creating Russia's Security Council, a consultative body that helps the president prepare the country's national defense policy. The group comprises key ministers and agency heads and is chaired by the president.

• Kantemir Balagov's ‘Beanpole’: Meduza reviews a moving love story set after the siege of Leningrad
• Opinion: Journalist Andrey Arkhangelsky says ‘Chernobyl’ rises above the trash entertainment available in Russia domestically
• Russia's federal censor will require dating app Tinder to make all user correspondence available to law enforcement
• Facing U.S. ambassador boycott, Kremlin says it would like to see arrested American investor Michael Calvey at St. Petersburg Economic Forum
• Russian antimonopoly agency finds that ‘Avengers’ premiere reportedly delayed for Russian film was not, in fact, delayed
• After media executive accused of sexual assault wins defamation lawsuit, Russian social media users unleash mocking hashtag campaign
• Russian cleric receives government anti-extremism award for leading attacks against stagings of Wagner's ‘Tannhäuser’

Kantemir Balagov's ‘Beanpole’ 📽️

On May 16, Beanpole (Dylda), Kantemir Balagov’s second full-length film, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Meduza’s resident film critic Anton Dolin argues that the film confirms Blagov is a talented master with his own style.

Read Meduza's review: “A moving love story set after the siege of Leningrad”

Opinion: ‘Chernobyl’ beats Russia's homegrown entertainment because the HBO miniseries reconciles with the Soviet past ☢️

HBO’s “Chernobyl” miniseries continues to fuel debate in Russia, where Moscow’s chattering class trades essays about the show’s remarkable or despicable qualities. In a new op-ed for Republic, journalist Andrey Arkhangelsky is decidedly fond of the program, arguing that the lack of censorship in the U.S. and Great Britain is why “Chernobyl” manages to outshine anything produced in Russia over the past two decades.

Arkhangelsky starts by arguing that the show’s patriotic critics in Russia are right to fear it, insofar as “Chernobyl” threatens the “cocoon” that has enveloped most Russians and subverted their “consciousness.” He says contemporary Russian television and cinema have cultivated the notion of a “heavenly” USSR that has many redeeming qualities. The great sin here, Arkhangelsky argues, is that the Russian media has turned Soviet tragedy into entertainment, instead of using its “therapeutic power” to “heal wounds.” He thinks the focus on entertainment has taught people “to live at half-strength,” robbing the public of its ability to feel empathy.

So what’s so special about HBO’s miniseries? Arkhangelsky says it’s the fact that the show depicts Soviet individuals performing acts of heroism despite the Soviet system, in effect compensating for its inhumanity and rising above the regime’s ideology. This transforms the Soviet person into someone ordinary, finding universal motives for the characters and telling viewers that everything depends on individuals, even in totalitarian systems. In other words, “Chernobyl” highlights the tragedy of Soviet daily life, where everyone was a potential victim, and thereby manages to reconcile with Russia’s past in a way that Russian entertainment cannot.

Why haven’t Russian filmmakers produced something like this already? Borrowing a bit of jargon from the biohazard world, Arkhangelsky says this kind of project is simply impossible, given Russia’s current “permissible levels” of truth and creative freedom.

News briefs

• 🔥 Internet users in Russia will soon have someone looking over their shoulders, when they flirt online. On Monday, June 3, the federal censor added the dating app Tinder to its list of “information-dissemination organizers.” What that means in practice is that Tinder will now be required to store all user correspondence for six months and make the data available to law enforcement, upon request. Read about swiping left on Internet privacy.
• ❤️ Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov expressed restrained sympathy on behalf of the Kremlin for U.S. investor Michael Calvey’s bid to attend the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. Calvey, who has denied the fraud charges against him, is currently under house arrest. Read about the Kremlin's feels here.
• 🦸‍♂️ Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has found that no violations were committed in granting Avengers: Endgame a Russian release date of April 29, four days later than the global release on April 24. The Telegram channel Povorot na Pravo, which submitted a complaint about the delay, reported on the FAS’s response. Read about the film delay that wasn't.
• ⚖️ On May 30, Vladivostok journalist Yekaterina Fedorova and her attorneys announced that a court had found against her in a defamation lawsuit brought by Alexey Migunov, the co-founder of the PrimaMedia conglomerate. In January of 2019, Fedorova publicly accused Migunov of beating, biting, and raping her in her apartment. Read about the lawsuit here.
• 🏆 Alexander Novopashin, the abbot of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Novosibirsk, has received an award “for counteracting extremism.” The head of Russia’s federal Anti-Extremism Center (Center E) personally gave Novopashin the award at a ceremony in Novorossiysk. Learn about this great champion of the easily offended.