May 31, 2024

Russian Series on Netflix and How The Russo-Ukraine War Changed Things

Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, what was Netflix up to in Russia? By: Kritchanon Tan Kian Wei

On February 24 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, escalating the Russo-Ukrainian War that has been ongoing since 2014 and prompting many businesses to exit the region in the process. Prior to this Netflix, had greenlit several Russian series as part of efforts to provide a more diverse range of content, despite having fewer than 1 million subscribers in the country.

Netflix’s first Russian Original drama series Anna K was announced on May 26 2021. An adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel Anna Karenina, the series would have starred Svetlana Khodchenkova as the titular character and would have been directed by Valeriy Fedorovich, Evgeniy Nikishov, Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov and Roman Kantor.

A few months later on 10 November 2021, Netflix announced an untitled Russian drama series starring Alexander Petrov. The psychological drama would’ve followed a celebrity “who finds himself in the center of tragic events that destroy his personality, and about his desperate struggle to become himself again,” according to Netflix. 

Then, a month later, on December 21 2021, Netflix announced Nothing Special, a heartwarming drama directed by Ilya Malanin that would’ve seen a volunteer and young actor Lyokha supporting people with disabilities, starring Yura Borisov, Paulina Pushkaruk, Daria Melnikova, Anton Sankevich and Olga Lomonosova.

It looked like Netflix was on a roll, as on February 1 2022, Netflix announced ZATO, a neo-noir detective drama starring Anastasia Talyzina. The series would have followed Kristina, an ambitious journalist, teaming up with Dashkin, a desperate cop, to investigate the disappearance of a child in a dangerous town.

However, three weeks later, Russia invaded Ukraine, and subsequently, on March 2 2022, Netflix announced they would be halting production on all Russian-language series and pausing future acquisitions from Russia. Even though Anna K and Nothing Special had already wrapped filming in December 2021, with the untitled project wrapping soon, all four series were cancelled. Four days later, on March 6 2022, Netflix announced it would be suspending its service in Russia in protest against the invasion, effectively killing all hopes that the aforementioned series would ever see the light of day.

Netflix’s pulling out of Russia did not go smoothly at all. Their sudden exit from the country resulted in Russian Netflix users teaming up to file a class-action lawsuit against the company for loss of service, seeking 60 million rubles or approximately US$730,000 compensation as well as a fine against Netflix for 50% of the amount awarded by the court.

Whilst this story’s ending is a bit tragic, there is still some good news, as some Russian movies and TV series on Netflix, like Booba, Better Than Us, Sparta, Silver Skates and To the Lake still remain, giving worldwide users a taste of Russian-made content, even if new Russian content doesn’t seem to be arriving anytime soon.

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