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From the first days of war, Alexander Rodnyansky publicly opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He gave multiple anti-war interviews to both film industry publications — Variety, Deadline and Screen International as well as international media.
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Alexander Rodnyansky turned his personal Instagram account into an anti-war media outlet, documenting for his largely Russia-based audiences the atrocities of war in Ukraine, including the massacre of Bucha and other war crimes perpetrated by the Russian army.
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For his public anti-war position the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation Sergey Shoigu made a request to the Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova to eliminate “Rodnyansky from cultural agenda of Russia”. In a letter leaked to a Russian publication Insider, Rodnyansky was named alongside Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky.
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A public pro-war group that lists “national traitors that pose threat to Russian interests” branded Alexander Rodnyansky as an “enemy” of the Russian state.
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On October 21, 2022 Alexander Rodnyansky was declared to be a “foreign agent” by the Russian Ministry of Justice. A so-called “foreign agents” law, passed in 2012 and repeatedly expanded, allows the Justice Ministry to label groups or individuals “foreign agents,” exposing them to fines and harassment that stymie their work.
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On May 17, 2023 the Basmanny District Court of Moscow arrested Rodnyansky in absentia in connection on the charges of “spreading fake news” about the Russian army. There had been no previous reports of a criminal case against Rodnyansky. According to the court’s press service, Rodnyansky, who is outside Russia, will be arrested once Russian authorities manage to detain him or to get him extradited.
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On October 22nd a Moscow court in an overtly political case has sentenced Oscar-nominated film producer Alexander Rodnyansky to eight-and-a-half years jail in absentia on Monday for his anti-war position. In response to the unjust sentence Rodnyansky released the following statement:
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“From the first days of war when the Minister of Defence of Russian Federation directed the Minister of Culture to ban all of my work in Russia I knew that my anti-war position would be inevitably punished. It never stopped me from publicly supporting Ukraine and protesting the war and of course it won’t stop me now.
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I do not recognise the authority of the Russian court or my sentence and I will continue to work and speak the truth about the brutality of Russian invasion both in media and through my films”.