Moscow has put Vitaly Mansky, one of the nation’s leading documentary filmmakers & a critic of the invasion of Ukraine, on a wanted list. Russian local media have shared the following information on Tuesday.
Mansky, 58, was recently involved in a defamation case which was brought by prominent film director and Kremlin supporter Nikita Mikhalkov. As per reports, Mansky said, “At least, 85% of the budget of the Moscow International Festival, which is led by Mikhalkov, had been stolen.
Mansky said on Tuesday that, “I am too old to regret stating anything. The reality is that I do not live in Moscow & I do not agree with what is happening in Russia.”
Russian journalist and socialite Ksenia Sobchak, to whom Mansky made the allegations about the Moscow International Festival in an interview, said Tuesday she had been summoned as a witness in the defamation case.
But Mansky suggested in an interview Wednesday that his inclusion on the international wanted list might not be connected to the defamation case in which he has not been formally charged.
Mansky, a vocal critic of the Kremlin, moved to neighbouring Latvia following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The filmmaker founded ArtDocFest — Russia’s largest documentary film festival in Russia — in 2007 but was forced to halt it this year following attacks by Russian nationalists.