Karen Shakhnazarov

Karen Georgievich Shakhnazarov (; born 8 July 1952) is a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter. He became the director general of Mosfilm Shakhnazarov is one of several living descendants of the famous Melik-Shahnazarian princely family from Nagorno-Karabakh. The Melik-Shahnazarians ruled Nagorno-Karabakh's province of Varanda in medieval and modern times.

His 1987 film Courier was entered into the 15th Moscow International Film Festival, where it won a Special Prize. In 2002 he was a member of the jury at the 24th Moscow International Film Festival. Since 2005 he has been a member of the Public Chamber of Russia.

His 2012 film White Tiger was selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.

Political and public activity

In 1998, Shakhnazarov was appointed a member of the board of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Cinematography.

In April 2000, Shakhnazarov signed a letter supporting the policy of the recently elected Russian president Vladimir Putin in Chechnya.

In 2001, Shakhnazarov was appointed a member of the board of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

From 2006 to 2011, Shakhnazarov was a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. He was Deputy Chairman of the Commission for Cultural Development and, since 2008, Chairman of the Commission for Culture.

Since January 2012, Shakhnazarov has been a member of the "People's Headquarters" for the city of Moscow of Russian presidential candidate Vladimir Putin.

In March 2014, Shakhnazarov supported the annexation of Crimea and signed a letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin in support of the annexation. For this he was banned from entering Ukraine.

In September 2016, Shakhnazarov became a trusted representative of the United Russia party in the 2016 Russian legislative election. Also in 2018, he became a trusted representative of Moscow mayoral candidate Sergey Sobyanin.

On 15 January 2020, Shakhnazarov was included in the working group for preparing proposals to amend the Constitution of Russia.

On 24 February 2022, Shakhnazarov publicly supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On 28 April 2022, on the Russia-1 TV channel, Shakhnazarov threatened critics of the war with mass reprisals:

He later stated that his words were "taken out of context." called for an end to the invasion of Ukraine, saying that the situation was at risk of becoming "an absolute humanitarian disaster", and that there is no realistic possibility for the Russian forces to seize Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities.

At a meeting with President Putin on 13 November 2024, Shakhnazarov stated that Mosfilm had handed over to the Russian Armed Forces in 2023 28 T-55 tanks, 8 PT-76 tanks, 6 infantry fighting vehicles and 8 tow trucks.

Selected filmography Year English title Original title 1984 We Are from Jazz 1985 Winter Evening in Gagra 1987 The Messenger Boy 1988 Zero City 1991 The Assassin of the Tsar 1993 Dreams 1995 American Daughter 1998 Day of the Full Moon 2001 Poisons or the World History of Poisoning 2004 The Rider Named Death 2008 Vanished Empire 2009 Ward Number 6 2012 White Tiger 2017 Anna Karenina: Vronsky's Story 2023 Khitrovka. The Sign of Four