Russia bans THE DEATH OF STALIN

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[They] criticised the movie for parodying the history of the country and denigrating the memory of Russian citizens who fought the Nazis.

The film insults the Russian people, the signatories said, and even the Soviet Union's national anthem - heard in the trailer (which contains language some readers may find offensive) - was used inappropriately.

Minister Medinsky later responded to the controversy by saying: "Many people of the older generation, and not only, will regard it as an insulting mockery of all the Soviet past, of the country that defeated fascism and of ordinary people, and what's even worse, even of the victims of Stalinism."

When British comedy The Death of Stalin was banned by Russian officials after they watched a private screening, film fans took to social networks to express their frustrations.
Yury Polyakov, a member of the ministry of culture's advisory council, who was at the screening, said The Death of Stalin should not be shown in Russia because it contained aspects of "ideological warfare".
Critics of the ban are calling it "blatant censorship", whilst others call the film an "insult" that "does not deserve to be shown in Russia".
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Music critic Artemy Troitsky condemned the cancellation, drawing parallels between modern Russian bureaucrats and Soviet censors. He felt the film was worth watching as "it is funny in an English way and scary in a Russian way".
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Pro-Kremlin journalist Dmitry Steshin wrote that the satire was "perhaps is the most sickening film about the USSR in recent history" and tweeted that it was a "comedy that Hitler could have written".
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Sergey Snegirev also supported the ban, he said the filmmakers had "turned a tragic and heroic time in our country's history into cheap banter. Idiots!"
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Complaints about censorship came, perhaps surprisingly, from a (usually) pro-Kremlin commentator Maxim Kononeko on the social media platform Telegram, who wrote: "If The Death Of Stalin is not released to the general public it will be the first case of a genuine state censorship. It is a direct violation of the constitution."

In an act of defiance some bloggers are sharing the film on Russian social networks. As one VK user Alexey Punkin, put it: "If it is banned, then it must be worth watching."