No laughing matter: The Death of Stalin and Putin’s anxieties

Armando Ianucci’s dark comedy The Death of Stalin has caused controversy in Russia.

After a preview in the Ministry of Culture, a group of politicians and cultural figures – including the daughter of acclaimed WW2 military commander Marshal Georgy Zhukov – wrote an open letter to Culture Minister Vladimir Medinskii to withdraw permission for the film’s distribution in Russia. President Putin’s man for historical topics happily complied. The one cinema which defied the ban was ‘visited’ by police and dropped the movie from its program.