Ex-Minister of Culture, President's Special Representative for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy proposed to start "parallel distribution" of foreign films in Russian cinemas. This is one way to keep them under sanctions.
“Seriously speaking, if we want to preserve networks, and they must be preserved, <…> we need to think, I don’t know, about parallel distribution, about compulsory licensing. You can call it whatever you like, but this is one of the options, ”Shvydkoy said. According to him, to fill cinema halls, Russia must shoot at least 200-250 films, and shoots less than a hundred.
“Parallel rental”, which Shvydkoi proposes to introduce, is an analogue of “parallel import”, which the Russian government legalized on March 30. This concept in Russia is called the import into the country of goods for which the copyright holder has not given permission, in parallel with official supplies. Despite the fact that most often goods are imported in this way, the export of which has no other, legal channels, the Russian media continue to call this process “parallel imports”.