During a meeting of the Council of Culture, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the accelerated introduction of quotas for the distribution of foreign films. The Kremlin seems to be capping the amount of foreign content on television.
Vladimir Putin invoked the “ideological purity” of content and called for support of Russian filmmakers. According to him, in the absence of capping, “stupid and useless” films are released, while local productions receive limited funding.
Even though, in 2025, out of the 41 Russian films that received state support, 35 were a failure, and the producers suffered billion-dollar losses.
According to the authorities, ideologically correct, patriotic, and “urgent” films were supposed to strengthen the spirituality of the viewers. In reality, millions of rubles were spent on projects that only resulted in budgetary losses, reports rupor.md. To remedy this situation, it is proposed to limit the screening of foreign films.
The famous Russian director Nichita Mihalkov, who is also the president of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia, had previously asked Vladimir Putin for the measure, according to rbc.ru. In 2025, the Minister of Culture Olga Liubimova stated that measures are necessary to support local films.