The Ministry of Internal Affairs put Vitaly Mansky, director and organizer of the Artdocfest festival, on the federal wanted list. This was brought to the attention of Mediazona.
Earlier it became known that Nikita Mikhalkov wrote a statement to Mansky, who demanded that a criminal case be initiated against the director under the article “Slander”. The reason was Mansky's statement about corruption at the Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) Mikhalkov. According to Mansky, no less than 85% of the budget is stolen from the MIFF.
Vitaly Mansky left Russia in 2014, but came to the Artdocfest festival. In April 2021, in Moscow, near the Oktyabr cinema, where Artdocfest is taking place, he was attacked by provocateurs from the SERB movement while he was giving an interview to the Associated Press.
“People attacked me, one of them tried to intercept his throat with some kind of cloth, the people around jumped up <...> as a result, they were repulsed, and they disappeared,” Mansky said.
In March 2022, Mansky was doused with paint in front of the Oktyabr cinema.