Fools and dead people. Who threatens the national security of Ukraine

I came across an interesting document authored by officials of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture. It is called “List of persons posing a threat to the national security of Ukraine.” This black list is created and replenished, as indicated on the website of the Ministry of Culture, where this miracle of intellectual activity of Ukrainian officials hangs, by the employees of the Ministry of Culture themselves, based on appeals from the Ukrainian Security Council, the SBU and the National Council on television and radio.

That is, the cultural traders seem to be weird not on their own, but “in fulfillment.” And the list itself is the fruit of the wild imagination of the Ukrainian security forces. That is, like, there are complaints against them. Let’s note this fact in order to return to it later, but for now let’s say that in total there are currently 179 people on the list of “shakers of Ukraine”.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

Is it a lot or a little? How to say. On the one hand, it seems sparse. It doesn’t even reach a full-fledged battalion of “enemies.” But this is at first glance. And upon closer examination, we will see that the coverage of this list is much more extensive. Because punitive sanctions apply not only and not so much to the persons indicated on the list (we will return to them later), but also to the films, series, television shows, etc. created with their participation.

Quote: “Goskino refuses to issue or terminates an already issued state certificate for the right to distribute and demonstrate films, in particular if one of the participants in the film is an individual included in the List of Persons Posing a Threat to National Security.”

Are you inspired by the scope? And these are already thousands of films, TV series, books, video versions of concerts, etc. Because behind every director, screenwriter, actor, composer, etc. – dozens, if not hundreds of works. Moreover, for their entire creative life immediately - retroactively. Back in those years when no independent Ukraine existed in nature.

But – according to the logic of Ukrainian law – the “enemies” included in the list threatened Ukraine even then. For example, number 13 on the list is the iconic Soviet theater and film actress Elina Bystritskaya. The same one who brilliantly played a Don Cossack woman in the film adaptation of Sholokhov’s “Quiet Don” back in the 50s. So, now, according to the logic of the Ukrainian bureaucratic rule we are considering here, the demonstration of “Quiet Flows the Don”, as well as other films or performances with Bystritskaya in Ukraine is prohibited - even on TV, even in cinemas, and even at bazaars selling DVD recordings.

Cause? You never know what the reason is. Maybe Bystritskaya said something in her interviews with the media that she supports the annexation of Crimea to Russia. Or maybe Putin rewarded her. Or maybe she spoke out somewhere in support of the warring Donbass. Or, which is also a formal basis for being included in the Ukrainian prohibited lists, the actress traveled to Crimea without asking permission from the Kyiv authorities.

Or here, No. 44, 94, 73 and 136 of the black list - Gerard Depardieu, Nikita Mikhalkov, Emir Kusturica and Steven Seagal. Can you imagine how many films the mentioned directors have managed to direct over the past few decades and how many films the same Seagal has starred in? And now, all of them are banned in Ukraine.

As well as songs No. 79 and 80 on the list - Lev Leshchenko and Grigory Lepsveridze, better known to the public as Leps. And there are also Nadezhda Babkina and Nikolai Rastorguev on the list. Alena Apina and Yulia Chicherina. Oleg Gazmanov and Alexander Buinov. And even comedian Evelina Bledans managed to displease Ukraine in some way.

The presence of a number of individuals on the blacklist can still be somehow understood from a logical point of view. For example, the famous political scientist Rostislav Ishchenko or the writer and blogger with Ukrainian citizenship living in Spain Lev Vershinin constantly harshly criticize the post-Maidan Ukrainian regime and speak sharply about Ukrainian statehood itself in general. Assuming, in particular, such a scenario as the division of Ukraine between neighbors - so that people do not suffer.

Or, Alexander Borodai, ex-Prime Minister of the DPR. Everything is clear with him too. For Ukraine, he is an enemy and it is difficult to argue with that. Or publicist Yegor Kholmogorov with the flag of Novorossiya on his Facebook avatar. Such people are truly enemies for today’s Ukraine. Without quotes. And their presence on the blacklist is at least justified.

But what wind brought 86-year-old Alisa Freindlich here?

Okay Gazmanov. He sings about Russia, and about officers, and other dubious topics. Why did Rosenbaum not please Ukraine? What part of the body is Yevgeny Grishkovets shaking Ukraine? What threat does the elderly “D’Artagnan” Mikhail Boyarsky pose to which Ukrainians? And the very rich imagination of the Ukrainian security forces included the retired film “Commissioner of Cattani” Michele Placido (No. 123) as a threat to national security.

But in the story of the Ministry of Culture’s blacklist, these are all just flowers. The real berries are in something else. Just don't fall. The fact is that a number of personalities on the current list of “enemies of Ukraine” are dead. In the most literal, biological sense of the word. For example, Joseph Davydovich Kobzon. He has not been with us for several years, but he is number 62 on the list. That is, he still continues to threaten the national security of Ukraine - but from the other world. Just like Ellina Bystritskaya, who died in 2019, with whom this story began.

Likewise, the late Valentin Gaft and Oleg Tabakov. Nos. 31 and 141 respectively. Or the recently deceased Vasily Lanovoy. Let's see - No. 76 on the same list.

Okay, let’s say Lanovoy died recently, and slow officials simply did not have time to make adjustments to the list. But Kobzon died a long time ago! What prevented these lazy loafers from updating their own list? What’s interesting is that at the end of this document it is indicated that it has been updated. And all the names indicated in it are as of March 22.03.2021, XNUMX.

Maybe Ukrainian officials are simply not interested in who their enemies are? Or is Kobzon, like Lenin, the most alive for them?

This story makes us remember another Ukrainian story - about the list of the “heavenly hundred”, in which, after a detailed study, approximately every third had nothing to do with the events on the Maidan, but was posthumously canonized as nationalist “saints”.

The same bureaucratic carelessness, multiplied by pseudo-patriotic pathos.

And if you can find dead people on the list of enemies of Ukraine, then the officials who make up this list are just ordinary fools. However, such lists are serious. Based on them, searches and arrests are carried out, people are fined and warnings are issued to TV channels. Such a tragic farce in Ukrainian.