Mikhalkov turned to the European Union after being included in the sanctions list

Director Nikita Mikhalkov wrote an open letter to the Council of the European Union, in which he criticized the EU for being blacklisted. Mikhalkov’s letter published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

“I, Nikita Sergeevich Mikhalkov, film director, screenwriter, producer, winner of an Oscar, two Golden Lions at the Venice Film Festival, the Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival and many other awards, I write about this only to emphasize that I am not a politician, not an official and not a civil servant. I am a Russian artist, a representative of an ancient Russian family,” Mikhalkov noted in his letter.

He criticized the EU authorities for the fact that they, “considering themselves a civilized democratic society,” announced sanctions to a person who expresses a personal opinion “in his country, in his homeland.”

According to the director, for 11 years now he has been broadcasting Besogon on the Russia-24 channel, and for all these years he has never changed his point of view on any of the key issues that he posed. “Not knowing what you are saying, you declare me a propagandist for the Kremlin. But for reference, if you are interested: I do not receive a single penny from the channel or from the state and I make the transfer at my own expense, ”Mikhalkov points out. He also believes that the EU’s “attitude” towards him developed after watching the programs and precisely because they “help people learn the truth with their truthfulness and independence.”

Mikhalkov promised Western leaders a tribunal from third world countries, “which today are waiting for our victory, but have neither the strength nor the opportunity to express it openly.” At the end of the letter, he also stressed that President Vladimir Putin is the only world leader to stand in the way of a “destructive tsunami of hypocrisy.”

On December 16, 2022, the EU added 141 people and 49 entities to its blacklist as part of the ninth round of sanctions against Russia. Blacklisted turned out to be and Mikhalkov.

January 7 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed decree on the introduction of personal sanctions against 119 Russian and Ukrainian cultural figures, show business, political scientists and media managers. Mikhalkov was also on this list.