Press Release, 18.06.2019

Emilia Slabunova, Chair of the Yabloko party and MP of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia, filed a complaint with Karen Shakhnazarov, Vice Chairman of the Council for Culture and Arts under the President of Russia, on the fact that studio of film director Nikita Mikhalkov plans to film a fire in the historical wooden village of Kinerma in Karelia. Earlier Public Prosecutor’s Office in Karelia initiated an inspection on Slabunova’s request.

The studio of film director Nikita Mikhalkov TRITE is planning to shoot a disaster film, one of the scenes of which will be a fire. The shooting will take place in Karelia, near the historical settlement of the mid-16th century, the village of Kinerma. The village has the status of cultural heritage and is famous by ten monuments of wooden architecture. It is also member of the association The Most Beautiful Villages of Russia, and attracts a large number of Russian and foreign tourists. There are no water reservoirs nearby, and the emerging threat of fire provokes protests from the residents of the village and broader public in the Republic of Karelia and beyond.

“I believe that creation of new works of culture must not endanger the destruction of existing cultural values,” Slabunova wrote in her appeal.

According to Slabunova, shooting a fire near the village of Kinerma represents a significant threat to architectural wooden monuments dating back to 18-19 centuries, in addition, the consequences of the fire will entail deterioration of the fertile soil layer: as the plot of land allotted for filming has the category of agricultural land and should be used for agricultural needs only.

The Chair of Yabloko also recommended that the Council pay attention to the legislative side of the issue when determining the filming sites for filming near historical sites, cultural and architectural monuments of federal and regional importance, and on agricultural lands.