Russia declares protagonist of Oscar-winning documentary a ‘foreign agent’

The teacher had spent two years documenting pro-war propaganda at a school before smuggling footage out of Russia.Russia has declared the teacher and main protagonist of the Oscar-winning documentary “Mr Nobody Against Putin” a foreign agent.Pavel Talankin, who won Best Documentary at the Academy Awards earlier this month with US director David Borenstein, spent two years documenting pro-war propaganda at a school in the Chelyabinsk region in west-central Russia while working as the school’s videographer.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Oscars 2026: Full list of winnerslist 2 of 4One Battle After Another’s big night: Key takeaways from the 2026 Oscarslist 3 of 4‘Stop all these wars now’ says Oscar winnerlist 4 of 4Actor Sean Penn gifted a special ‘Oscar’ by Ukraine’s railway companyend of listTalankin fled Russia in 2024, smuggling out the footage for use in the film.A Russian court banned the documentary from several streaming platforms on Thursday, saying it promoted “negative attitudes” about the Russian government and the war in Ukraine.Since Russia launched its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian authorities have sought to totally suppress opposition to the war while aiming to rally support for the war among Russian citizens.Talankin’s name appeared in a statement on the justice ministry’s list of foreign agents on Friday.Without naming the film, it said that Talankin had “disseminated inaccurate information” about Russia’s leadership and “spoken out against the special military operation in Ukraine”, Moscow’s official term for the war in Ukraine.People listed as foreign agents are subject to onerous bureaucratic requirements and income restrictions in Russia.They are also obliged to place the foreign agent label on social media posts and on anything else they publish.‘Stop all of these wars now’The documentary by Talankin and Borenstein uses two years of footage that Talankin recorded at ‌a school where he was employed to show how students were exposed to pro-war messaging.