Russia’s Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky has revived proposals for screening quotas for Russian films in cinemas

Speaking to the Interfax agency, he said: “A quota for Russian cinema must be introduced; without it, you cannot help Russian cinema.”

He referred back to the Soviet era when there had been an annual quota set on US films of only six releases a year - “And the Soviet films did very good business.”

Medinsky indicated that the question of introducing a bill for such a quota would be resolved “soon” once the box-office results for 2013 and the Russian cinema’s market share had been analysed.

“I think that 20% is a reasonable figure,” he suggested as a minimum quota, pointing out that this had been the same figure proposed by United Russia party members Sergei Zheleznyak and Maria Kozhevnikova last year.

However, calls for quotas or restrictions to the number of screenings of non-Russian films in cinemas have been met in the past with stiff opposition from Russian producers, exhibitors and distributors alike, who argue that such measures would not benefit the Russian cinema which currently has a market share of around 13%.

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