Russian Cultural Minister Says Netflix Is A US Govt Conspiracy

Ted Goodman Contributor
Font Size:

Russians apparently like to Netflix and chill too much, because a top Russian official said the popular digital media platform is probably a U.S. government mind control project.

In an interview with the Russian news agency Rambler, Vladimir Medinsky, Moscow’s cultural minister, claimed that the online streaming service was part of a conspiracy by the U.S. government to “enter everyone’s home.”

Medinsky asked rhetorically if people thought that “these gigantic startups emerge by themselves,” suggesting that the U.S. government is directly supporting certain companies with propagandist goals.

Medinsky explained that the U.S. government understands perfectly well that the cultural influence of cinema is the art form that is most important, alluding to a famous Vladimir Lenin quote. Following the fall of the czars and the establishment of the Soviet Union, silent films became an ideal tool for conveying information about the fall of the czar and the rise of the new Soviet State. The high rates of illiteracy combined with the fact that film was a reproducible and widely distributable mass medium made film an ideal tool for state propaganda.

Medinsky said that, “through this television, [they get into] the heads of everyone on Earth. But [Russians] don’t grasp this.” They understand “with the help of Netflix, how to enter every home, to creep into every television, and through that very television, into the heads of every person on earth,” Medinsky said.

Netflix is a known quantity to Medinsky and other Russian leaders. Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin recommended the Netflix series, “House of Cards” to his newly appointed Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu in 2012.

“You’ll find it useful,” Putin is quoted as telling Shoigu in Zygar’s 2015 book, “All The Kremlin’s Men.”

Netflix was founded in 1998 by entrepreneurs Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. The company started as a DVD-by-mail service, and evolved into the world’s largest online streaming service. Netflix broke into the Russian market just this past January, and is now accessible in 190 countries.

According to Radio Free Europe, Medinsky is known for pro-Russian, hyper-patriotic public statements. For example, in 2014, Medinsky called for an annual cap for imported movies. At the time, Medinsky cited the Soviet era, when no more than six U.S. movies were allowed to be released in the Soviet Union per year.

Follow Ted on Twitter

Send Tips to ted@dailycallernewsfoundation.org

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel