The legal department of the Rossiya-24 television channel has filed complaints with the Moscow prosecutor's office and the Investigative Committee over the harassment of the creators of the film "The Last Hero. Kolobok." Eduard Petrov, head of the channel's legal programs production service, announced this in a statement.
According to Petrov, director Anton Maslov and lead actor Dmitry Zhuravlev have become "targets for anonymous calls and messages with threats." The threats included wishes of death and promises to burn their property.
The Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti reported that a criminal case has been opened under the article on threats of murder or causing grievous bodily harm (Part 2, Article 119 of the Criminal Code), which carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison. The case is being handled by the Dorogomilovsky inter-district investigative department of the Investigative Committee for the Western Administrative District of Moscow.
The film "The Last Hero. Kolobok" was released in theaters on August 6 and immediately faced a wave of criticism on social media. By August 8, its rating on Kinopoisk had fallen to 1.9 points based on nearly 240,000 user ratings. The service said that even before the film's release, it received "thousands of ratings overnight," 90% of which were negative.
The premiere was also accompanied by controversy over the postponement of the Russian release of "Spider-Man: Freshman Year." Online discussions also focused on an incident where Maslov and Zhuravlev mocked the work of an electrician named Vladimir from Moscow, who commented that Kolobok was "disgustingly drawn." The director found Vladimir's Telegram channel and criticized his work.
VGTRK, which includes Rossiya-24, was one of the film's sponsors. Petrov called it a "matter of honor" to "identify those who hide behind anonymous accounts and cross the line of the law." Law enforcement are now identifying users who wrote negative reviews and threats against the film's creators.