Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has imposed sanctions on the authors and distributors of the Russian animated series “Masha and the Bear.” This decision will allow the broadcasting of the animated series to be banned in Ukraine, according to the president’s office site.
It is noted that “Masha and the Bear” spreads “pro-Russian narratives masked as children’s content” and thus threatens the country’s national security. The restrictions were introduced against the studio “Animakord,” which created the series, and five Russians, including the founder and general director of the studio, the author of the screenplay, and the rights holder.
Earlier, Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsakhkna described the cartoon as “part of Kremlin soft power,” since it introduces “pro-Kremlin and militaristic messages into children’s entertainment content and at the same time normalizes Russian aggression and imperial ambitions.”
20 August, President Zelenskiy announced the introduction of several sanction packages against the Russian Federation. They will affect both direct Russians and former Ukrainian officials who are in Europe but continue to support the Kremlin.
In June, streaming giant Netflix acquired the rights to two new seasons of “Masha and the Bear” and extended its deals for seasons and spin-offs of the project that have already aired. After that, Ukrainians began canceling their Netflix subscriptions. On the social network Threads, users launched a corresponding flash mob.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "В Україні заборонять мультфільм «Маша та Ведмідь» через проросійські наративи". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: KP.UA.