The prosecution initially requested 14 years of strict regime imprisonment for the defendants regarding a video shoot involving cinematic pyrotechnics. The prosecution now considers the court`s sentence too lenient and intends to appeal it.
“Thank God I didn`t go to jail,” was the comment given to Business FM by Andrey Klochkov, the director of the videos featuring the fictional official Vitaly Nalivkin, regarding his six-year suspended sentence. Semyon Vavilov, the show`s producer, received the same term from the Ussuriysk District Court of the Primorsky Krai. Both men were also fined 150,000 rubles.
The prosecution had originally sought 14 years of strict regime for the defendants. The department has already stated its intention to appeal the sentence, arguing it is excessively mild.
Vitaly Nalivkin is an invented character, a composite of stereotypes regarding folksy, provincial officials: simple, inarticulate, yet decisive. Starting in 2019, Nalivkin’s YouTube videos featured him compelling the population to vaccinate, exposing corruption, and other such actions. Vitaly Nalivkin was played by the laborer Andrey Neretin, who was repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility for petty hooliganism and even served five days in jail. The actor passed away last autumn.
The case against the creators of the “Nalivkin” project, Andrey Klochkov and Semyon Vavilov, was initiated in 2021. The trigger was a video titled “Vitaly Nalivkin Prevented a Terrorist Attack.” The script involved the head of the fictional Ussuriysk executive committee discovering a suspicious bag at a bus stop and deciding to destroy it with a grenade launcher. The projectile first hits a shield advertising the “United Russia” party, and then the bus stop itself. Director Klochkov told Business FM that no bus stop was damaged and the crew ensured safety: people were stationed 150 meters away to monitor adherence to safety regulations, and only cinematic pyrotechnics were used to simulate the shots and explosions. Nevertheless, the authors were charged with hooliganism and illegal manufacture of explosive devices by a group of persons in prior conspiracy.
The prosecution requested 14 years of strict regime for both defendants. Formally, they had every right to do so, according to Fyodor Trusov, Managing Partner of the Sokonov, Trusov & Partners Law Office:
Managing Partner of the Sokonov, Trusov & Partners Law Office
“Formally, if the prosecution requested 14 years of strict regime, they were acting within the scope of the charges filed—Articles 213 and 223 of the Criminal Code, which cover hooliganism with explosive devices and illegal manufacture of explosive devices. But, on the other hand, the court, in this case, took an absolutely correct and justified decision, even if they found them guilty, by applying the principle of justice. Because the punishment must correspond to the nature and degree of social danger posed by the crime. This is a direct imperative norm of Article 6 of the Criminal Code.”
Mikhail Salkin, an advocate at the Moscow City Bar Association, also had no issues with the court’s decision but questioned the classification of the case itself:
Advocate at the Moscow City Bar Association
“It turns out that by using any pyrotechnics, you can fall under the article. Because if you tape two units together to get a bigger explosion for the picture, it will be considered that you have manufactured a new explosive product that does not comply with the certificate, and have arbitrarily manufactured an explosive device. Should every schoolchild be jailed for taping two firecrackers together? The article for arbitrary modification and manufacture of explosives ranges from 10 to 15 years; these are standard sanctions. Therefore, if the sentence was lower than the minimum for this crime, it means the judge must have applied Article 64 of the Criminal Code, which allows for a sentence below the minimum in the presence of exceptional mitigating circumstances. In reality, this suggests that the judge likely understands that the strict application of this article is inappropriate and felt the need to improve the defendants’ situation without issuing an acquittal. This often happens when the charges remain, but the verdict turns out to be very, very lenient.”
The prosecution also deemed the verdict overly lenient and intends to appeal. No one dares to predict the outcome of the appeal, but the authors have one hope left: remaining free, stated director Andrey Klochkov. The project authors will not appeal the current sentence:
Director of the Vitaly Nalivkin videos
“No, probably not. The main thing is not to be imprisoned, that’s all. Fourteen years of strict regime for these shootings—that’s more than they give for murder in our country. The court decided to make the sentence suspended. Well, the prosecution wrote that they will file an appeal. We hope we won`t be jailed.”
It should be noted that the authors of the “Nalivkin” project have not abandoned their professional activities. Now, the problems of the Ussuriysk region are solved not by the head of the regional executive committee, but by the valiant district police chief Alexey Andreychenko, who is just as simple and decisive. He speaks bluntly, has a cigarette in his teeth, and good intentions. The authors are carefully avoiding making videos about a fictional head of a district court.
The Passing of Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot became a sex symbol of the 60s and 70s, known not only as an actress but also as a singer, activist, and animal rights advocate. She remained a vibrant personality throughout her life.
Brigitte Bardot has passed away. The famous French actress was 91 years old. During her career, she appeared in more than fifty films. But she gained worldwide fame for the film “And God Created Woman.”
Bardot, a Parisian, was born before World War II in 1934. She came from a wealthy family, raised by nannies and foreign governesses. She studied classical dance under the Russian choreographer Boris Knyazev. In her youth, she toured with a ballet company. She began her career as a fashion model and quickly appeared in Elle magazine. At the age of 22, she played the main role in the film that made her a global star—Roger Vadim’s “And God Created Woman.” The actress considered it one of the most important in her life, saying, “I never had better filming.” The director became her first husband. The film was criticized by various religious organizations; in several US states, the picture was banned for showing overly explicit scenes.
The scandal only intensified interest in the film. It was a box office success in the US, and Brigitte became “the most famous Frenchwoman overseas.” She was even criticized by her relatives for posing in an open bikini in the film “Manina, the Girl in the Bikini,” but the film became a marketing driver due to the rising fashion for bikinis. Brigitte Bardot herself became even more in demand.
After that, movie roles poured in. Paparazzi constantly waited outside her home. Bardot was already a sex symbol, the dream of millions, a trendsetter for clothing, hairstyles, makeup, and manners. The film “The Truth,” in which she starred, was among the Oscar nominees, and Bardot also appeared in the candid drama “Contempt” by Jean-Luc Godard. In her later years, the legendary actress became a passionate activist for animal rights, founding her own fund and dedicating her life to fighting cruelty against them.
Despite this, she sharply criticized feminism, the Me Too movement, and Europe`s migration policy. Nevertheless, she is primarily an actress who changed world cinema, not just a beautiful woman, says film critic Dmitry Yelagin:
Film Critic
“Brigitte Bardot is one of the symbols not only of French cinema but of world cinema, and she changed it because she starred in Roger Vadim`s `And God Created Woman,` and he was her husband, incidentally. This film not only brought sex to the screen but also brought the young body to the screen. This effectively overturned French cinema in the late fifties, leading to the emergence of the French New Wave, which in turn led to the new Soviet cinema of the sixties. Brigitte Bardot is relevant to the whole world. Many people might think, `Oh, just some beauty starred on screen, and that`s where it ends.` In fact, several of her roles had enormous significance for the history of cinema. She is a very important personality for the history of cinema and for culture in general. She acted extensively until the end of the sixties, and things were going well for her. She has a few roles that I think are quite decent. She appears in Godard`s `Masculine Feminine.` In general, she didn`t act as much as she could have, considering she was the number one actress. I think cinema was not the most important thing she did. She was involved in activism and fought for animal rights. And I think that is a very valuable, politically important action. Naturally, she had her own views on feminism and on Russia. I would say that she was against the Me Too movement. Why she wasn`t on the side of women—Brigitte Bardot didn`t understand it, because she lived in very difficult times when women were often treated as a piece of meat in cinema, and she knew perfectly well what male objectification was.”
In an interview with Marie Claire magazine, Brigitte Bardot said that she considered the creation of her Animal Protection Foundation the most important work of her life and that she would like to be remembered as the “fairy of animals,” rather than a film legend.
She sold her jewelry and property for the needs of the fund, managing to raise about 3 million francs. She also transferred one of her mansions to the organization.
Cyclone Chaos in Kamchatka: Thousands Without Power Amid Pre-New Year Travel
A cyclone originating from Japan brought warming temperatures and heavy snow that snapped power lines. Petropavlovsk is experiencing a transport collapse compounded by pre-New Year preparations.
In Kamchatka, thousands of people are without light and heat due to a blizzard. The region has been snowed under for several days. Power lines were snapped in several villages, and a state of emergency was declared in the Yelizovsky district. More than five thousand people were left without electricity. In remote areas where heat and water rely on electric boilers, people are surviving solely on generators.
The work of emergency services is complicated by thick, wet snow clinging to wires; snow removal equipment constantly gets stuck. Public transport was temporarily stopped due to the heavy snowfall. School holidays began earlier than scheduled. Flights at Yelizovo airport were delayed due to the bad weather. A Moscow-Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky flight was forced to land in Khabarovsk. Yevgeny Sivayev, Chief Editor of the newspaper “Kamchatka Time,” describes the situation:
Chief Editor of “Kamchatka Time” newspaper
“The official information around three hours ago was that 5,500 people remained without power. But in reality, settlements are being connected quite quickly. We have a small neighborhood near Petropavlovsk, Molodezhny, which is private housing, and they are still without power for the second day. About 300 people live there. In principle, this is all related to the fact that during the cyclone, there was wet snow that came to us from Japan. Naturally, it snapped wires, and trees fell in some places. The main thing is the mass of precipitation; there is really a lot of snow. Especially in the regional center of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, only about 40 percent of the roads are cleared today. You can drive on the central roads, but in some places, it’s only a single lane, leading to wild traffic jams. Now that New Year`s is approaching, people are trying to get to stores. Yesterday, many shopping centers were simply blocked off, simply closed, it was impossible to drive to them, as the parking lots were not cleared.”
“How else does all this affect city life?”
“We were lucky. The weather spared us in that the cyclone arrived on Saturday morning, so it was the weekend. But again, New Year’s is approaching. Naturally, people are unhappy. Who can be happy walking 10 kilometers? Our city stretches for almost 40 kilometers in length. So, to get from point A to point B, you either have to walk or order a taxi. But taxis are extremely expensive. Private drivers take literally almost 1,000 rubles per kilometer. Fortunately, many people who have their own SUVs, or good, high-clearance cars, pick people up and take them to bus stops at least. People help free ambulances because almost every ambulance falls into a snow trap. It takes simply heroic efforts to get out of this situation. There hasn`t been heavy snowfall in Petropavlovsk for the last five years. So, the contractors relaxed, and the city authorities relaxed; they didn`t update special equipment, they didn`t buy special equipment, thinking, well, maybe it will continue like this. And now we have a blizzard and a test. So now the prosecutor`s office is keeping everything under control; surely some heads will roll, people will be punished, because this is just chaos, to put it mildly.”
Business FM spoke with Eduard, a resident of Yelizovo, where the state of emergency was introduced. In the private sector, people clear their own roads with shovels, he says:
Yelizovo Resident
“We have two different climates: Yelizovo is in the lowlands. The city is mostly on a hill. It gets snowed in much more and faster. They can cancel buses, ambulances can`t pass, there are few units of snow-clearing equipment in the city. In Yelizovo, only one company handles cleaning the central, main roads. They cope with this problem. But in the inter-district areas—I just visited my friend, he has only one lane in one direction, meaning the road between the quarters inside Yelizovo is not cleared. The central roads, the main roads, have been cleared, but the streets, the private sectors, where there are private houses, are not cleared; people clean them themselves.”
“So people go out with shovels?”
“Yes, those who live in a private house in Yelizovo, we don`t have just an apartment block city, there are high-rise buildings and private houses. Those who have a private house go out to clear a space for their car, so they can drive out, travel, drive apart. Some hire equipment to clean for them. The administration doesn`t handle this. For people to get to work, a person has to get up early. If his workday starts at 8 AM, he wakes up at 6 AM, clears the snow, and only then drives out. And those who drive children to kindergarten wake up even earlier.”
Meanwhile, the cyclone is moving further west, towards the Magadan region, where bad weather is expected next.
Artificial Intelligence Takes Over Music Charts, Sparking Copyright Battles
While some stars fight for copyrights and live art, others shamelessly fill streaming services with AI-generated tracks, accumulating millions of listens. The vast majority of users cannot distinguish a live creation from one generated by AI.
Is anyone alive? Artificial intelligence is increasingly landing in the top ranks of Russian streaming services alongside real artists. Moreover, in November, the AI song by the virtual artist Breaking Rust topped the US Billboard chart for the first time.
While some stars fight for copyrights and live art, others shamelessly fill streaming services with AI-generated tracks, accumulating millions of listens.
The tops of Russian charts are now full of artists created by artificial intelligence. Yandex estimated that almost 70% of artists use neural networks in their work. The streaming service decided that if the system cannot be defeated, it should be led, and created an updated playlist called “AI Artists.” The range of genres is astonishing—from dance pop to heartbreaking lyricism. By the end of the year, 27 out of the top thousand artists were artificial intelligence.
Various GPT chats, and most importantly, music neural networks like Suno, untie the hands of creatives, allowing anyone to get on streaming services and get a so-called hit in a matter of minutes: a finished song with arrangement and vocals in any genre, complete with single cover art. It is no coincidence that global stars are drawing attention to the copyright issue directly related to neural networks, says music critic Evgeny Babichev:
Music Critic
“If you listen closely to the melodies and intonations, the very approach of generating these melodies becomes clear. Songs that are made artificially can easily be distinguished from songs written by authors the old-fashioned way. Elton John, Paul McCartney—it’s not by chance that they sound the alarm and shout that this trend must be somehow limited, because today it`s the first places in the charts, and tomorrow it will be Grammy Awards and royalties… What will be left for authors who categorically do not accept this option? We want the authors to be real, living people. It just creates confusion in the history of show business. When tons of fake material appear, supposedly an unreleased Beatles album or a found, recorded Elvis Presley album, when in reality it is all fake. While we can still check with Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr, who will we ask when these people are no longer with us?”
Global labels are already actively fighting for authentic art but seem to be losing to technology. Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Records filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Suno and Udio in the summer of 2024 for using musical works without artist permission. However, in November of this year, Warner reconciled with Suno and withdrew from the dispute, concluding an agreement with the service to use music from its catalog for a subscription fee. At the same time, Suno announced it had attracted $250 million in investment, valuing the company at nearly $2.5 billion.
There is also a high-profile case in Russia. An AI cover of the Snow Maiden`s song from the Soviet cartoon “Well, Just You Wait!” was removed from the network and the Yandex Music chart. The claim against the creators was filed by the original lyricist and composer, Yury Entin. The track was removed four days after its release, but it had already managed to gather millions of listens. The image for the clip was created by Midjourney, and the sound by Suno—under the direction of Buryat blogger and photographer Sasha Komovich. According to her, she indicated the author of the verses and promised to pay him royalties for every listen, but it seems she did not receive approval.
Evgeny Safronov, founder of the Intermedia information agency, comments:
Founder of Intermedia Information Agency
“Artificial intelligence can take a work and change it, in terms of arrangement or the text itself. But this is already a reworking, according to legal norms. And using the `Snow Maiden` in a work allegedly created by artificial intelligence—in fact, it was created by a person using artificial intelligence as a tool. The person is responsible for the final output.”
Clement Ashworth