On May 30, 2022, Netflix left Russia. The streaming service lost millions of users, but really had no choice. Visa, Mastercard and American Express had already left Russia – with their payment solutions. Since then, many other popular entertainment options have disappeared for the average Russian, who, according to Statista, spends almost four hours a day in front of the TV screen. The streaming services are not available. The cinemas do not get access to new films. The online games FIFA and NHL are also not available. But that does not prevent Russians from consuming Western culture. That’s what several Russians news talks to say. – I watch the series I want, I just use the VPN. Most people I know do the same, says Evgeny Gindilis, who works in the film industry in Moscow. Right now he is watching “Ozark”, “White Lotus” and the Norwegian-produced series “Occupied” (original title: “Okkupert”). He does this with the help of a fake IP address, created by a VPN. VPN allows you to change your location to a country where the service you want to use is available. That way, Russians can consume as much Western culture as they want. It is of course difficult to keep statistics on which series the Russians actually watch, but the analysis company Parrot has made an attempt. They use artificial intelligence to measure the TV series’ demand in social media, file-sharing networks and on fan pages. The most popular series in Russia: 1. Stranger Things (Netflix) 2. The Witcher (Netflix) 3. Middle Lane Vampires (START) 4. The Boys (Amazon) 5. Trudnye Podrostki (more.tv) 6. Wednesday (Netflix) ) 7. Emily In Paris (Netflix) 8. La Casa De Papel (Netflix) 9. To The Lake (Netflix) 10. Shantaram (Apple TV) Bigger online than Germany – Immediately after the invasion of Ukraine, an exceptional increase was seen in the purchase of VPN services, says author and journalist Mikal Hem in Forsvarets Forum. Photo: Krister Sørbø / Photo: Krister Sørbø, Defense The TV market in Russia is changing. Just a few years ago, pirated CDs and DVDs of Hollywood films were still available at the local kiosk. Now the films have moved online. – Russians have a long tradition of piracy that dates back to the Soviet era. In the Soviet Union, almost all Western culture, films, books, music and video, was pirated, says Mikal Hem. He is a security policy reporter at Forsvarets Forum, and has written several books about, among other things, Russia and Putin’s regime. – After the fall of the Soviet Union, there were stalls everywhere selling pirated CDs and DVDs. After the streaming services took over, this business has moved online, says Hem. More than half of Russia’s 143 million inhabitants are on the internet, and sales of smart TVs have exploded. Last year, Russia became a bigger internet market than Germany. Therefore, of course, there are also Russian streaming services. The largest is Ivi, which was created as early as 2009. It has both series and movies, all in Russian. Kinopoisk, which focuses mostly on movies, is another service available to Russians. – People watch them, but they don’t have the good offer we are used to from the American streaming services, says Gindilis. NETFLIX: Henry Cavill stars in “The Witcher”, one of the most popular series in Russia. Photo: Netflix “Blue Men 2” The Russian cinemas also have big problems, since the big American film studios have pulled out of Russia. That’s why cinemas pay up to 15,000 dollars for pirated versions of new blockbusters such as “Batman”, “Black Panther” and “Avatar 2”. These versions of the films must comply with “modern Russian legislation”. For example, all LGBTQ-themed clips had to be cut from the movie “Doctor Strange” when it was released in theaters in Russia. AVATAR: Ticket to a cinema screening of Avatar 2: The Way of Water. In Russia, the film is called “Blue Men 2”. One of the Russians news spoke to recently saw Avatar 2 in a cinema in Moscow. – There was good sound and a good picture. Great film too, says “Valentina” to news. She does not want to give her name, but sends a photo of the cinema ticket showing that she has been to Avatar 2 in Moscow. There, by the way, it has been given a new title, which can be translated as “Blue men 2”. According to the Russian news service Izvestia, the country’s government is now considering formalizing piracy. – As far as I know, a new law is being discussed that will give cinemas the opportunity to show foreign films instead of taking part in the semi-legal practice of showing downloaded films in cinemas, says Anton Gorelkin, who sits in the lower house of Russia’s federal assembly, on Telegram. That Russia will create a state system to allow pirated films in cinemas does not surprise Hem. – Russia does not have much to lose by allowing such things. They already have a fairly strong censorship apparatus, censoring foreign films that are shown publicly. When pirated films are shown in cinemas, these are often films that have already been censored under Russian legislation. Like in the old days, says Hem.
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The Russians devour Western film and TV – defy boycott – news Culture and entertainment
