Putin Bans Dirty Words From Film & Stage
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed legislation that has been floating around the Duma for years: as of July 1st, there will be no swearing in movies and theatrical productions or from the concert stage. You won’t read it in your local family newspaper, but the law centers on the four pillars of slang: there is khuy (“cockâ€), pizda (“cuntâ€), ebat’ (“to fuckâ€), and blyad (“whoreâ€). David Remnick comments that we won’t be hearing certain works of classic Russian authors such as Pushkin (whose statue is pictured in Moscow) in their entirety anytime. I say: so much for David Mamet’s Russian royalties. And such a pity: Mamet’s conservatism matches well with the views enforced more and more by Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church.
