CHELYABINSK — A court in Chelyabinsk has banned the documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin from three streaming platforms on the grounds that it propagates extremism and terrorism. The court ruling requires the film to be removed from VK Video, Yandex.kz, and Motion Video.

Prosecutors argued that the documentary expressed a negative attitude towards the war in Ukraine and the current government. The deputy prosecutor said the film featured the flag of a terrorist organisation, referring to the white-blue-white flag used by anti-war protesters. Prosecutors requested that the court ban the film on VK Video, Yandex.kz, and Motion Video for an unspecified group of people.

Mr Nobody Against Putin won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature on March 15, 2026. The documentary had previously won the Bafta award for Best Documentary earlier in 2026 and premiered on January 25, 2026, at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received a special jury award.

The Danish-Czech production was directed by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin. The documentary is based on footage collected by Pavel Talankin, a school events coordinator who worked at a school in Karabash in the Chelyabinsk region.

Mr Nobody Against Putin charts Kremlin-mandated indoctrination of Russian schoolchildren through lectures on the need to denazify Ukraine, speeches by war veterans, and lessons on how to spot mines and handle guns. The documentary features stories of Pavel Talankin's former students joining the army and dying in Ukraine, as well as his acts of resistance.

Pavel Talankin fled Russia in the summer of 2024 with the hard drives containing footage for the documentary. In March 2026, a Russian governmental human rights body condemned the documentary for using footage of children collected without their parents' consent and said it would appeal to the Academy that awards the Oscars to launch an investigation.

The white-blue-white flag featured in the film is associated by Russian officials with the Freedom of Russia Legion, which fights alongside Ukrainian forces against occupying Russian troops. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian government has increased punishments for dissenting voices opposing the war. Public signs of opposition to the war can result in long prison sentences in Russia.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, "I did not watch this film."