Two-time Academy Award nominee Alexander Rodnyansky (“Leviathan,” “Loveless”) was sentenced in absentia to 8.5 years in prison by a Moscow court on Monday, with the producer accusing Russian authorities of attempting to “instill more fear” among critics of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
“Dozens of Russia’s best writers and musicians have been sentenced for that purpose before me: to silence the anti-war voices,” Rodnyansky said in a statement shared with Variety.
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The ruling, which was handed down in Moscow’s Basmanny District Court on Monday afternoon, sentenced Rodnyansky to 8.5 years in prison for his anti-war comments and also banned him from posting on the Internet for four years.
The court found him guilty of disseminating military “fakes,” as Russian officials characterize any statements that contradict the official narrative around the war in Ukraine, and determined his actions were motivated by “political hatred,” according to the Russian news site Mediazona.
In his statement, Rodnyansky insisted authorities had mounted a “political case” against him, adding that he had been “sentenced for talking about the atrocities of the Russian army in Bucha.”
“The decision of the Moscow court is meant to instill more fear in the Russian film community and prevent them from publicly criticizing either the unjust war in Ukraine or Vladimir Putin personally,” he said.
Noting that the Kremlin’s crackdown on opposition to the war has targeted “dozens” of Russian artists — and many thousands of ordinary civilians — he added: “The difference in my case is simple: I am not Russian, I am Ukrainian.”
The Kyiv-born producer, who spent nearly three decades living and working in Russia, has been an outspoken critic of the war in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. After receiving a tip that his criticism had landed him in the Kremlin’s crosshairs, Rodnyansky managed to flee the country. In October 2022, Russia’s Ministry of Justice declared him a “foreign agent.”
After launching a prolific media career in Kyiv that saw him directing documentaries and founding Ukraine’s first independent TV network, Rodnyansky went on to become one of the most influential producers in Russia. His collaborations with filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev landed him Academy Award nominations in the foreign-language (now international feature) category for “Leviathan” and “Loveless.”
“Just a couple of years ago before the invasion of the Russian army into my native Ukraine I lived and worked in Moscow,” Rodnyanksy said in his statement. “My films won awards at Cannes. Twice they were nominated for an Academy Award representing Russia, and once a film that I produced (‘Leviathan’) won a Golden Globe. Times have changed dramatically since then, and today I am sentenced for speaking out against the brutal war in an unashamedly political case.
“From the first days of war, when the Minister of Defense of the 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,” he continued. “It never stopped me from publicly supporting Ukraine and protesting the war, and of course it won’t stop me now.”
Rodnyansky added that he did not “recognize the authority of the Russian court” or his prison sentence, and said he “will continue to work and speak the truth about the brutality of the Russian invasion both in media and through my films.”
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