Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin suggested that Muscovites decide whether to hold New Year's celebrations in the city this time. Voting was launched on the Active Citizen portal. Judging by Sobyanin's statement, no matter what the Muscovites choose, the money will in any case go to support the war. The mayor himself advocated the celebration.
“Maybe we shouldn’t cancel New Year’s events after all. Maybe it's better to count not the savings on holidays, but the income from them – which will allow us to send a multiple more to support the participants in a special military operation. Maybe there is no need to finish off small businesses that employ millions of people with artificial restrictions. Maybe organize charity fairs during the holidays to support the affected areas. Maybe not cancel, but dedicate the holiday to our soldiers and people who work tirelessly in the defense industry, build defensive structures, restore destroyed houses, ”said Sobyanin.
He cited 1942 as an example, when the New Year was still celebrated, despite the war. “In spite of adversity, in spite of enemies – in trenches and dugouts, in bomb shelters, in factories and factories, in the Bolshoi Theater, in city parks, they decided to make a holiday for children and adults,” Sobyanin wrote.
The survey offers Muscovites a choice of three options:
- Celebrate the New Year, as usual, and send the money to "support the participants of the NWO."
- Decorate the city, but do not hold mass events, and send money to "support the participants of the NWO."
- Do not decorate the city and do not hold mass events.
Meanwhile, the Moscow agency reports that they have already begun to assemble a skating rink and various New Year's structures on Red Square.
The Rossiya TV channel and other central TV channels, in turn, promised viewers to ensure “a New Year's mood during the holidays, despite all the changes in the country and in the world.” “We will create a New Year's mood by all means available to us in all environments available to us,” said Alexander Nechaev, deputy general director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. According to him, TV viewers, "certainly, will receive all the emotions that they are used to receiving in the New Year."
Meanwhile, the American company Warner Bros. banned the Russian holding National Media Group (owns STS, REN TV, Domashny, Pyaty) from showing its films this year. During the New Year holidays, Russians will not be able to watch all the parts of Harry Potter, which are traditionally shown by many Russian channels.