UK MPs suspicious of Russian cartoon series Masha
A UK MP has warned that Russia is trying to burnish its reputation with “cultural and sporting events”, amid fears that a popular children’s TV show is spreading “unsubtle” pro-Kremlin propaganda.
Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon and 53 other MPs have written to Culture Minister Lisa Nandy, warning that Masha and the Bear contains militaristic themes.
Three members of the Ukrainian parliament, Yevheniia Kravchuk, Halyna Vasylchenko and Kira Rudyk, also joined those who signed the letter.
Gordon told the Press Association that Russia, which has been frozen out of various international forums such as the G8 and the Eurovision Song Contest in recent years, could use exports such as Masha and the Bear to return to the world stage.
Asked whether the government would approve the television programme, he said: “If people have violated international law, then maybe we shouldn’t give them a platform.”
In a statement to The Guardian, a spokesperson for the studio behind Masha and the Bear denied it contained Russian propaganda.
Masha and the Bear was released in Russia more than 17 years ago and has now reached billions of views worldwide.
In the cartoon, best friends Masha, a little girl and a big brown bear go on adventures around the world and occasionally in space.
An episode titled Recipe for Disaster and uploaded by user Get Movies has been viewed more than 4.6 billion times on YouTube.
The Kiev-based Center for Countering Disinformation had previously warned that the cartoon promoted a “positive image of Russia in the form of a big, good-natured bear.”
The organization claimed it also promoted “the normalization of the Soviet past and military symbols in children’s environments.”
The show’s studio, Animaccord, which is headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus but previously had an office in Moscow, allegedly maintained direct ties with Russia through its owners and intellectual property rights.
In their letter this week, MPs pointed to a 2015 post on Masha and the Bear’s English X account as an example of propaganda.
Masha wears a large green military-style hat with a red star in the middle and the words on the side: “Wow, I’m in the army now!”
The caption reads: “A real military girl with a butterfly net.”
MPs described the hat as “the hat of the NKVD border guards, an agency responsible for mass deportations, executions and persecution of tens of millions of people.”
They added: “British children watching this show on Netflix or ITVX are actually part of a potentially revenue-generating audience for a studio that helps fund Russia’s war machine.
“The propaganda content is not subtle.”
ITVX declined to comment.
The publisher is not thought to have spent large sums of money to carry Masha and the Bear on its platforms, and its contract is with a business registered in Cyprus.
“My client categorically denies the false and defamatory allegation that Masha and the Bear is associated with propaganda,” Animaccord spokesperson Melanie Bonvicino told The Guardian.
He added that “Animaccord operates in full compliance with applicable laws” and that “the series contains no political messages and any claims to the contrary contained in its content are fully unsupported.”
