Nikolai Starikov, head of the Russian Great Fatherland Party, said The Death of Stalin was an "unfriendly act by the British intellectual class" and part of an "anti-Russian information war".[10] In September 2017, the head of the Public Council of the Russian Ministry of Culture said Russian authorities were considering a ban on the film which, they alleged, could be part of a "western plot to destabilise Russia by causing rifts in society".[11] On 23 January 2018, two days before film's scheduled release in Russia,[12] a screening was attended by State Duma MPs, representatives of the Russian Historical Society, members of the Culture Ministry’s Public Board, and film industry members. Two days later, the Ministry of Culture withdrew the film's distribution certificate. However, several movie theaters screened the film in late January, claiming that by then they didn't receive any information that the movie's exhibition license was revoked.