Russia should target Hollywood to pressure U.S. President Barack Obama into lifting sanctions on the country, prominent Russian movie director Yury Kara said Wednesday.
"As long as the sanctions against Russia are in place, we should ban all American movies from Russian movie theaters," he told a meeting of the All-Russia People's Front, the country's largest pro-Kremlin public movement, comprising many popular culture and sports celebrities.
"Hollywood would then apply pressure on Obama and push him to repel the sanctions," Kara was cited Wednesday as saying by Interfax news agency.
Kara is best known for his 1994 rendition of "The Master and Margarita," based on the eponymous iconic novel by Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov, and a popular anti-Stalin film, "Belshazzar's Feast," filmed in the late days of the Soviet Union.
Russia has been slapped with economic sanctions by the U.S. and European Union for annexing Crimea from Ukraine in March and its military involvement in the separatist unrest in Ukraine's east.
Last year, Russia's total box office revenue was $1.4 billion, on a par with Britain, Germany and France, with the bulk of that amount accounted for by U.S.-made movies.
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