The Russian Screen as Evidence After 24 February 2022: Cinema and Wartime Policy Analysis

This preprint examines Russian screen production after 24 February 2022 as a policy-relevant production field that remains observable in open sources. It analyzes how funding systems, regulation, market structure, and repertory patterns interact in the wartime Russian audiovisual sector, drawing on trade reporting, box-office analytics, funding data, and legal-regulatory materials. The paper reviews selected European institutions whose mandates intersect with Russian media analysis, including the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE), and the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO), in order to assess how Russian entertainment production appears within their published analytical routines. The argument does not claim the absence of prior scholarship. Academic research, policy commentary, and investigative reporting have addressed aspects of Russian cinema's political significance. The paper's narrower claim is that Russian mass-market screen production remains weakly institutionalized as a routine analytical object within European wartime policy analysis despite the continued availability of open legal, market, and trade evidence. The paper combines three source layers reviewed between January and March 2026: scholarly literature on contemporary Russian cinema and securitisation theory; official market and legal materials, including EAIS/Fond Kino reporting and Federal Law No. 324-FZ; and current trade reporting from Kinometro and Bulletin Kinoprokatchika. Claims are limited to what can be supported through public, citable evidence and do not treat absence in the open record as proof of absence in closed or internal analytical practice. Preprint. Not peer-reviewed.