The protocols were filed under Part 2 of Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code, which covers failure to submit a "foreign agent" report, and under Article 20.33, which covers participation in the activities of an "undesirable" organization, Mediazona reported, citing a court database. Both cases were assigned to a judge on September 24.
Talankin told Mediazona he does not intend to file the reports until, in his words, "the fascist Putin regime officially reports to the Russian population where, on what and how much money they allocate from the budget." He also demanded an accounting of the number of killed and wounded in the war and of the number of destroyed schools and hospitals.
"Until the government, which like locusts devours everything alive, reports to the population about its fruitless work, which is leading the future toward a hopeless life, they will get nothing from me," Talankin said. He asked the Justice Ministry to stop "bombarding" his mailbox with letters and added that if the agency wants a letter to reach its recipient, it will have to send it to an unfriendly country.
Talankin said he does not know what prompted the protocol over ties to an "undesirable" organization. According to him, that protocol was "written by an undesirable, fascist, terrorist organization that is engaged in the genocide of its own population and the destruction of neighboring countries." He mentioned that he took part in a NATO conference.
Pavel Talankin worked as a teacher-organizer and videographer at a school in the town of Karabash near Chelyabinsk. After the war in Ukraine began, he filmed how military propaganda was imposed on students at the school, including the "Conversations About Important Things" sessions. In 2024 he took the material abroad and, together with American director David Borenstein, edited it into the documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin, about military propaganda in Russian schools, using School No. 1 in Karabash as its example.
In March the film won an Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature category. Two weeks later, the Justice Ministry added Talankin to its register of "foreign agents." A Chelyabinsk court banned distribution of the film in Russia.