"Value aggression against the CIS countries is one of the most serious challenges"
Russia and the CIS countries are facing pressure from the collective West, which seeks to falsify history and undermine their values, for example, traditional ideas about the family. Alexey Shevtsov, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council, told Izvestia about this. He notes that the commonwealth countries can jointly resist the spread of the culture of abolition and other neoliberal practices. At the same time, Russia is building up its own humanitarian potential: the Eurasian Academy of Cinematographic Arts, established on behalf of the president, already unites 20 countries. At the same time, 16 states sent films to participate in the first Open Eurasian Film Awards, which will be held on November 24.
"The values of the peoples of Russia and the Commonwealth countries are very similar"
— In late October and early November, the International Festival "Peoples of Russia and the CIS" was held. Has this platform helped bring our peoples closer together against the backdrop of the difficult geopolitical situation in the world?
— The International Festival "Peoples of Russia and the CIS" was held from October 31 to November 5 in Moscow at three venues at once: the World Trade Center, the Moskino Film Park and the Rossiya National Center. Numerous guests from different regions of our country and the CIS countries took part in various business and educational programs, film screenings of feature films and documentaries, as well as creative meetings with their creators and actors, attended lectures and a VR cinema of the Russian Geographical Society, sessions dedicated to the national symbols of Russia with the participation of leading experts, theater artists and movies and famous bloggers.
To answer the question briefly, our peoples are already close. Constant attempts by external forces to divide and separate us are ultimately doomed to failure.
This is due not only to a common history, but also to the fact that the spiritual core of our societies is made up of the same traditional values and moral guidelines that were laid down by our ancestors over the centuries. They form the basis of our statehood, serve as a pillar in human and family life, form a culture and a sovereign worldview that is resistant to attempts to impose someone else's will on us.
The traditional values of the peoples of Russia and the Commonwealth countries are very similar, have a common nature and guidelines. These are friendship of peoples, commitment to truth and justice, mercy and humanism, a strong family and love for children. This is mutual assistance and the desire to achieve not only personal well-being, but the success of the whole country. And, of course, this is patriotism, devotion to the Motherland. It was these values that fueled the energy of creation, inspired the great achievements of our ancestors. And today they serve as a support and guideline for us, including in the development of the education and upbringing system.
I am sure that the festival has contributed to the promotion of intercultural and interethnic dialogue, and the further strengthening of strong humanitarian ties between the regions of Russia and the CIS countries.
— Issues related to the protection of the historical memory of the peoples of Russia and the CIS were discussed at the festival. How successfully have we resisted attempts to rewrite history?
— The ability of a state to defend the centuries—old traditions inherent in its people is an integral element of sovereignty and a guarantee of free and stable development.
This is largely why the values of our countries, as well as other states of the world majority, are subjected to aggressive pressure from the collective West. Neoliberal elites seek to distort them, destroy traditional ideas about the family and marriage as a union of men and women, sow ethnic discord, and distort history.
Today we see purposeful work on the total falsification of history. The direct involvement of the West in the formation of the Nazi regime, the creation of the Wehrmacht military machine, and the provocation of an attack by Germany and its satellites on our country is refuted. The official acts of the EU deny the decisive role of the USSR in the liberation of Europe and the defeat of the Third Reich. All the peoples of the Soviet Union carried out titanic joint work to rebuild the country after the Great Patriotic War. The Great Victory inspired our people to tremendous achievements, which ensured the country's global leadership in a number of areas, including space exploration, the development of peaceful atom, the exploration of the Arctic, Siberia, and the Far East.
I can't help but recall the lines written in 1947 by the Soviet poet and military commander Alexei Surkov:
With servile zeal, the zealous liar
Anathematizes
You, heroic, peace-loving,
Dear Soviet people!
When from ashes, ruins and ruin
You raise your house,
You're being branded by a hundred-tongued pack
Streams of slander.
Unfortunately, little has changed since then. Foreign foundations and NGOs generously finance pseudoscientific research in order to form a negative attitude towards our country. The thesis of the alleged forced assimilation of peoples and the obstruction of their economic and cultural development is actively promoted. This leads to the fact that a part of the population of the Commonwealth countries, especially among young people, develops negative attitudes towards Russia and the Russian people.
In this situation, objective coverage of the events of the Great Patriotic War, based on archival documents, eyewitness accounts, and scientific knowledge, is key to shaping the younger generation's civic position, self-awareness, and pride in their country.
Over the past two years, more than 746,000 events aimed at protecting historical truth have been held in Russia and abroad. About 2 million materials on the history of Russia have been published in the media and social networks.
Personal participation and immersion of young people in the history of the Fatherland and in the events of the war years help preserve the living fabric of the historical memory of the feat of our people, provide the most important moral guidelines that, I am sure, the current youth will preserve and pass on to future generations of Russians.
Value—based aggression against the CIS countries is one of the most serious challenges to our common security. Systematic work is needed to reflect it. Russia's experience in preserving and strengthening traditional values can also be used in the CIS area.
"In 2024-2025, more than 50 film events were held in 22 countries"
— One of the themes of the festival is to counteract the so–called cancellation culture, which is promoted in the West. Can the CIS countries jointly resist this phenomenon? And what is the West's goal in canceling concerts and performances by Russian performers? On November 6, it became known that Arena di Verona canceled the participation of the world-renowned Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov in the production of the opera Don Juan. And a jubilant post about this was posted on Twitter by the deputy chairman of the EP, Pina Pichieno, who personally sought the cancellation of performances by Russian cultural figures in Italy.
— The answer to the first question, strictly speaking, lies in him. Of course, they can, and this is being done, but first of all — in the internal information space. The main task here is not to conduct explanatory work with Western partners (they are often difficult to convince), but to prevent the spread of this infection in our countries.
As for attempts to abolish Russian cultural heritage in the West, this is, first of all, the problem of Westerners themselves, which they create for themselves in an attempt to demonize Russia in the spirit of classical dystopias. At the same time, both ordinary citizens and the professional community are still interested in getting to know Russian culture better and are eager to participate in joint projects.
For our part, we are ready to continue supporting initiatives aimed at developing cooperation with constructively minded foreign countries. Russia has been and remains open to dialogue in all areas of cultural cooperation.
I'll give you an example of a movie. In 2024-2025 alone, ROSKINO, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Culture, held more than 50 film events in 22 countries. Russian films are represented on the world's largest film markets.
The Eurasian Academy of Cinematographic Arts, established on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, is an important step towards strengthening international cooperation. The project turned out to be a fundamentally new growth point for a number of national film industries in a multipolar world.
20 countries have already expressed their willingness to join this initiative, including the CIS countries, Venezuela, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Pakistan, Republika Srpska (RS, an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina), Senegal, Serbia, Turkey, South Africa.
The first Open Eurasian Film Award will be held on November 24, 2025. 16 countries have already submitted films for participation.
— Hollywood is one of the main tools for promoting the United States and the West in general. Will Russia step up efforts to export our cinematography to the CIS and far abroad? Which countries have already reached similar agreements?
— The Ministry of Culture of Russia is working to popularize modern Russian cinema in foreign countries and promote the image of Russia not only as a strong cinematic power, but also as a great country with a rich history and culture based on traditional spiritual and moral values. Cooperation with the CIS countries, with which we share common historical and cultural roots, remains particularly significant.
The signing of new intergovernmental agreements on cooperation in the field of joint film production, including provisions on the export of relevant films, is being systematically worked out.
Today, Russia has signed bilateral agreements on cooperation in the audiovisual field with a number of countries — China, India, Venezuela, Uzbekistan, Serbia, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria and other states. There is also a cooperation agreement between the CIS members.
Thanks to these agreements, Russian and foreign filmmakers have the opportunity to create joint films. So, in September of this year, the premiere of the Russian-Chinese film "Red Silk" took place in China (created with the participation of Nota Bene Film Group and the National Media Group. — "Izvestia") is a project that has received the status of a national film in both countries.
Over the past few years, the Russian film industry has released a large number of films that are important to show to an international audience. These include family films promoting traditional values, military-patriotic films, serious dramas, and children's animation.
In 2024-2025, more than 50 film events were held in 22 countries — in India, Nepal, Brazil, Thailand, France, Algeria, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Cuba, Serbia, Colombia, Bahrain, Egypt, Venezuela and others — and foreign programs in a reciprocal format are regularly shown in Russia.
A partial cost compensation mechanism for film studios and distributors is also being implemented. This allows even small companies to reach the international level and find foreign partners.
They are actively engaged in the export of Russian cinematography and television products to foreign countries and private companies, for example, Gazprom Media Holding. Its key partners today include China, Turkey, the UAE, and India.
One of the most successful projects is the line of the show "Survive in ...". Earlier, filming took place in the UAE and Uzbekistan. In the future, it is planned to continue expanding the geography of the project to include India and the CIS countries.
Joint work is currently underway with the Chinese company Xicheng Media Company on a large-scale film project under the working title "Allies". The scriptwriters of Gazprom Media Holding are currently working on Russian roles, while the Chinese ones are working on Chinese characters. The film is scheduled to premiere in 2027.
Previously, the films "Blood Type", "Not on the list" and "The Wizard of Oz" were widely released in China. The yellow brick road." At the same time, China has quotas for showing foreign films on the big screen — 34 per year.
The films "Serf 2", "Doctor of Dinosaurs", "The Prophet" are also regularly presented in the United Arab Emirates. The Story of Alexander Pushkin" and many others.
India is also a good example, where national paintings are very common, due to the long history of cinema development. The history of Indian cinema began in 1899. This country is considered as promising for film production.
Thus, the presence of Russian cinema in the world is systematically expanding, promoting the image of modern Russia in the international community through the demonstration of values, traditions, and meanings.
"It is not necessary to develop the image of the Russian state as a defender of traditional values"
— One of the sections of the festival bears the name "Russia is a stronghold of spiritual and moral values." Can we say that Russia has become the main defender of traditional values in the world? How does this fact allow us to achieve our foreign policy goals?
— We see that in the modern world, the value and semantic space is subject to fierce competition. There is an aggressive struggle for influence on people's minds. Traditional values are declared outdated and archaic. Neoliberal, and in fact totalitarian, models are being pushed through. Moreover, they are not only being aggressively introduced in a number of Western countries, they are actively trying to export them all over the world. And it is clear why: to deprive peoples of their value base means to deprive them of sovereignty, to subjugate them, to turn them into vassals.
It is important to resist attempts to impose on our citizens, especially young people, attitudes that destroy our values. To respond harshly to challenges provoking interethnic and interreligious conflicts. At the same time, we must understand that some individual prohibitions, attempts to blindly isolate ourselves from the global information space are ineffective.
We need to consistently and actively promote our values, form our own humanitarian and cultural meanings that are in demand both in the country and in the world. Russia's position is well known: We advocate respect for the identity of countries and peoples, for their customs and cultures. And here we have many like-minded people and supporters. It is important to coordinate our efforts with our BRICS, CSTO, CIS partners and other countries that share our approaches.
In international relations, it is necessary to develop the image of the Russian state as a guardian and defender of traditional spiritual and moral values. This should be one of the priorities in the field of foreign policy.
Another important area is cooperation with our compatriots abroad. It is necessary to actively promote their preservation of the all-Russian cultural identity, paying special attention to the younger generation.
The priority of international cooperation and public diplomacy should remain the preservation of the truth about Russia's role in world history, especially about our country's decisive contribution to the victory over Nazism.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
