Game of Thrones has a complicated relationship with Russia. The show is popular in the country — it airs on Amedia, the “home of HBO,” and hundreds of Russians turned out to watch the season 7 premiere when it was shown in a Moscow subway station. And, as in other countries, pundits are quick to use it as a metaphor for politics.
I assume that video makes sense if you know about Russian politics, which I don’t.
Despite the show’s success, the Russian government has been hostile towards Game of Thrones, with legislator Vitaly Milonov even calling for a ban on the show back in 2015. “Every tenth character [in Game of Thrones] is a sexual deviant,” Milonov was quoted as saying in Izvestia, a Russian newspaper. “Through such works and their popularizing, a new matrix is being inserted in our consciousness, according to which things like that are normal.”
Sure, because Game of Thrones has inspired such a huge spike in incest and child sacrifice. But let’s move on.
Milonov isn’t the only Russian official who thinks less than highly about the show. Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, who’s responsible for state policy regarding art and censorship, recently was quoted by news agency Rosbalt explaining why Game of Thrones could never be made in Russia:
A Russian wouldn’t be able to make Game of Thrones, because we cannot unambiguously say whether the characters are good or bad. But we can do so, for instance, with regards to [legendary Russian 10th-11th century] Prince Vladimir.
Prince Vladimir, by the way, was the guy who converted Russia to Christianity. He became his rule as a pagan, but took up Christianity later in life. By Medinsky’s logic, he’s someone who went from completely bad to completely good, although looking at the prince’s abridged biography, you get the idea he was a complicated guy who probably would have fit in perfectly well with the Game of Thrones gang. But again, I’m getting off track.
Anyway, this is an interesting look into how a government that has strict notions of what is and is not appropriate for its citizens to watch interacts with a globally popular show. Personally, I’m all for more morally ambiguous characters in fiction, not less, but to each their own.
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