1. An MP of the Moscow legislature is seeking a ban on iPhone 6 imports in what appears to be a barb against the US for the sanctions imposed on Russia.
According to Alexey Lisovenko, notorious for his lawsuit against opposition blogger Alexey Navalny, every third Russian has a gadget made by Apple, and this trend must be curbed. He doesn’t want to see iPhone 6 in Russia claiming the country needs to close its market for the US firm.
2. Two prominent Russian directors suggested Russia should ban Hollywood movies until the US maintains its sanctions regime.
Yury Kara and Stanislav Govorukhin argue the American cinema industry would wake up and force the Obama administration to lift the restrictions slapped on Russia for its alleged role in the Ukraine crisis.
They also feel it would be a unique chance for the Russian cinema to get a bigger audience.
Stanislav Govorukhin suggested that the gap should be filled with films from Turkey, South Korea, Iran, Japan and Europe.
He also called for more financing to be injected into the domestic film-making industry.
The statements were made at the conference of the Russian Popular Front, a grassroots organization set up to support the Kremlin and help the authorities distance themselves from the United Russia party after the protests following the 2011 parliamentary election.
3. The State Duma speaker wants the US and the EU to introduce sanctions against each other following the shooting incident involving OSCE monitors.
Sergey Naryshkin said the official Ukrainian authorities are to blame for the dangerous incident and the US should be held liable since they support the Kiev regime. He called on the EU to slap restrictions against the US while Washington should target Brussels as well.
The proposal was part of a series of statements made to defy the growing international isolation.
Author: Mikhail Vesely