RUSSIA Novikov, the “supreme censor” of Putin’s culture

A 47-year-old opera director, out of loyalty to the cause, has taken it upon himself to dictate the new rules for Russian artists. With the support of the Kremlin, he has launched a major “patriotic content” project to produce films and television series, but also video games and apps to appeal to the world of youth.

Moscow () – Among the many ideologues and propagandists of Putin’s Russia, who are perpetually fighting against “foreign agents” and trying to defend “traditional values”, a particularly important place is occupied by Sergei Novikov, 47, a little-known opera director, but much better known as the director of the Social Projects Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, responsible for establishing the new rules of Russian culture.

The “supreme censor” was awarded to Novikov, a defender of freedom of speech in the 1990s, for a sensational concert: on the 80th anniversary of the siege of Leningrad, Novikov staged a performance of Verdi’s Requiem by the Moscow Philharmonic choir. At the end of Libera me, instead of the classic evocation of the Nazis in Berlin, a film of the Euromaidan in Kiev was shown, in which the demolition of Soviet monuments replaced a bonfire of books. The scene made such an impression that many spectators left the hall, and even the conductor Dmitry Jurovsky declared himself “bewildered” by the film, which he had not been informed about.

Novikov began to show his face as the “hammer of heretics” shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when many Russian artists and musicians signed an appeal against the war, posting messages on social networks with the black square, another symbol of Russian art. Then, the director of cultural projects initiated a series of meetings and extraordinary assemblies, initiating a massive backlash in the cultural world. Those who did not want to refrain from commenting on the war actions were soon expelled from everything.

Many compare Novikov to Jakov Agranov, an NKVD intelligence officer who under Stalin oversaw the repression of the “creative intelligentsia,” beginning with Vladimir Makhakovsky and his futurist movement. According to those who know him, Novikov is very vain and shows up in a tuxedo at all events, seeking recognition for his “high role” in the current dimension of Russian culture.

Acting under the direction of one of Putin’s closest associates, former Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko, it was Novikov himself who, on his own initiative, released to the media the “analysis results” of the poisoning of Alexei Navalnyj in 2020, according to which there was “nothing suspicious” in the oppositionist’s blood. Since then, he has often spoken in public to reprimand in a seemingly good-natured and friendly tone all “deviant” writers and artists, who then end up in camps or abroad.

Together with Kirienko, the official launched a large-scale project on “patriotic content” to produce films, TV series, video games and other applications, in which his 25-year-old daughter Ksenia is involved, in order to attract the preferences of the youth world. Together with several Orthodox priests, in particular the proto-priest Aleksandr Tkačenko, he created the “Circle of Good” foundation for charitable activities, especially in the healthcare sector, and sits on the board of the Dialog association, which specialises in fake news against Ukraine and is dependent on the Ministry of Defence.

In one of his last interviews, Novikov explained that he had not developed his career as a filmmaker as he would have liked: “I had to feed the children and tried to find a normal job.” Instead, today he has to “constantly communicate with directors, actors, filmmakers and all other actors in the world of show business,” simply as “a director or producer,” thus remaining in the world of his artistic profession, but “on the other side of the barricade.” The one he himself erected, and behind which he unearths with his infallible binoculars all the “cultural prey” of his uninterrupted witch hunt.