Sawt Falasteen - Russia labels 'Mr Nobody Against Putin' teacher a 'foreign agent'

Pavel Talankin, who won Best Documentary at the Academy Awards earlier this month together with US director David Borenstein, spent two years documenting pro-war propaganda at a school in Russia's Chelyabinsk region while working as the school's videographer.

Talankin fled Russia in 2024, smuggling out the footage to be used in the film.

A Russian court banned the documentary from several streaming platforms on Thursday, saying it promoted "negative attitudes" about the Russian government and the war in Ukraine.

The justice ministry added Talankin to its "register of foreign agents", updated on Friday.

Without naming the film, it said in a statement that Talankin had "disseminated inaccurate information" about Russia's leadership and "spoken out against the special military operation in Ukraine", Moscow's official term for the offensive on its neighbour.

Since launching the full-scale military assault on Ukraine four years ago, Russian authorities have sought to totally suppress opposition to the war while aiming to rally support for the offensive among citizens.

Authorities have amended school curriculums to promote Moscow's narrative about the offensive, and introduced compulsory lessons aimed at teaching the Kremlin's worldview.

The "foreign agent" label -- which Russia applies to those it considers enemies of the state -- effectively bans an individual from holding public office and forces them to register their activities with the authorities.

It has been widely applied to critics of the Kremlin over the last decade.

N.Shalabi--SF-PST