The State Hermitage Museum, the world’s biggest art collection, told Fontanka it had petitioned the St. Petersburg district attorney’s office to «evaluate and also check» Smorodin’s actions.
Russian authorities will certainly penetrate whether a visitor who hung a picture of himself at the well known Hermitage Museum damaged the regulation against disparaging experts, St. Petersburg media reported Wednesday.
According to the Fontanka.ru information web site, Kirill Smorodin hung the portrait of himself using 19th-century military uniform at the museum’s Patriotic War of 1812 display last week.
«Why isn’t my portrait here?» Smorodin reportedly created in his Instagram blog post before making his account exclusive after the images went viral online.
The Hermitage said it intended to probe whether Smorodin broke a just recently embraced legislation versus «publicly insulting the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland.»
President Vladimir Putin signed the legislation last March enforcing jail terms of up to 5 years for insulting World War II professionals.
The Patriotic War of 1812 exhibition celebrates Napoleon’s intrusion of Russia 209 years ago. Although the Russian military retreated, the diminished French military did not damage the Russian forces and left the nation later that year.
The language of Russia’s regulation versus insulting experts does not clearly discuss the War of 1812.
This goes to least the second request to check out supposed insults of Russian war veterans in the past 48 hrs.
On Tuesday, a veterans’ company asked the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, to establish whether prominent rap artist Morgenshtern damaged the legislation when he questioned the expediency of yearly parades honoring the Soviet victory in World War II.
The debates come amidst what critics call Putin’s attempt to use the history of World War II to increase his personal power.
‘Red Rainbow’ Coming Soon to a Small Screen Near You
At this year’s Series Mania Forum, an event dedicated to the development of the genre of television series, the pitching sessions award went to “Red Rainbow,” a project presented and to be produced by Ukrainian and Russian film and television producer Alexander Rodnyansky and AR Content/NonStop Productions.
“Red Rainbow” is based on the true story of a gay delegation from West Berlin invited by mistake to the Soviet Union in 1977, when homosexuality was illegal. The Secretary of the Soviet Central Committee, Ivan Kapitonov, was introduced to a group of young men he understood were “young communists” while on an official visit. He invited them to visit the Soviet Union, and a few months later two German men and an English woman — and a bulldog — arrive in the capital. In Moscow the translator is tasked with hiding the visitors’ sexuality while not letting them know that she is doing so. Chaos, it is presumed, ensues.
The “Red Rainbow” was one of 560 submissions from 59 countries, and one of 15 projects that made the final cut for a live pitch.
On his Instagram account Rodnyansky wrote that they were “incredibly happy” that they won the award, which carries a cash prize of $59,000 for development. “This series isn’t just entertaining, it’s truly important and relevant to discussions today about intolerance of “other” – people whose sexual orientation, religion, race or political beliefs differ from the majority.”
Rodnyansky is one of the most successful and respected film directors and producers working in Russia, Ukraine, and the international market today. His films include the award-winning “Beanpole,” “Loveless,” “Leviathan,” and “Elena.”
The script for “Red Rainbow” was written by British screenwriter Matt Jones, who has written for “Torchwood,” “Dr. Who,” and «Mr. Selfridge,” and other television series.