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Defense Ministry to Create Studio for Patriotic Films

Children sat slouched in the Metropolis cinema theater. Andrei Makhonin

Amid a Kremlin drive to encourage national pride, the Defense Ministry has said it would help to create a film studio dedicated to making patriotic films, animated features and documentaries.

"The main task is to return to the roots of our history and patriotic education," Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting of the ministry's public council.

An unidentified ministry official said the film company would be created using the infrastructure of an existing Russian film studio, with some of the resources coming from media holding Zvezda.

The ministry also has plans to produce compilation albums of patriotic songs. One such disk is already ready for release, Vedomosti reported Wednesday.

Since returning to the Kremlin for a third presidential term last year, President Vladimir Putin has led a push to unite Russians by championing patriotic spirit. He has helped to revive the Russian Geographical Society and Russian Historical Society, expressed support for a government-approved history textbook, and given several prominent speeches focused on national achievements.

At the Defense Ministry's public council meeting Monday, Shoigu also announced another project in the works for promoting patriotism: the creation of a military-themed park in Kubinka. The city in the southwest of the Moscow region will become home to separate aviation, tank and artillery museums where visitors will be able to look at military equipment and fly planes.

A more detailed plan for the park is expected to be completed by November.


Correction: Due to a translation error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Zvezda media holding was Armenian.

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