Exiled from Russia for defending Ukraine, a rising director expected freedom when he fled for the Big Apple \u2013 but instead found crippling censorship eerily similar to life under the eye of the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
Sasha Molochnikov ventured to New York City to start anew in August 2022 \u2014 enrolling at Columbia University and pursuing a master\u2019s in fine arts \u2014 after fleeing Russia following its unpopular invasion of Ukraine.<\/a> But he quickly encountered stifling limitations in free speech that brought back vivid nightmares of Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin\u2019s iron rule.\u00a0<\/p>\n After building a decade-long career in Russia\u2019s elite theatre circuits \u2013 putting on productions at the famed Bolshoi and the Moscow Art Theatre \u2013 Molochnikov, 34, posted a Ukrainian flag on his Instagram page as a sign of support for the war-torn country.\u00a0<\/p>\n Aleksandr Molochnikov attends the press night performance of \u201cSeagull: True Story\u201d at the Marylebone Theatre on September 9, 2025 in London, England. Alan Chapman\/Dave Benett\/Getty Images<\/p>\n In the outbreak of Putin\u2019s invasion of Kyiv \u2013 having even spent time in Ukraine as a kid \u2013 he said it was \u201cimpossible to stay silent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But it quickly cost him his career. Molochnikov was fired for his anti-war Instagram posts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, those who dismissed him were also replaced by \u201cfanatical Putin supporters,\u201d the director told The Post about life during the war.<\/p>\n The Kremlin will get you at some point, he warned.\u00a0<\/p>\n By not pledging allegiance to the blind patriotism demanded by Putin\u2019s war machine, Molochnikov\u2019s plays were swiftly ripped from him \u2013 cited as \u201cDirected by Director,\u201d by the murky censorship of Moscow, he said.<\/p>\n Today, the directorial attribution is left completely blank, Molochnikov said, as if the artist never existed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Molochnikov was fired for his anti-war Instagram posts.\u00a0 imdb<\/p>\n Expecting to find a new home for artistic freedom, he fled to the United States. But the director said he encountered a similar kind of pressure at Columbia University.<\/p>\n When he found himself slipping up, and saying something politically incorrect, Molochnikov described a heart-dropping feeling.<\/p>\n \u201cSuddenly some sweat drips down your back,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe this is already gonna be put in an email and sent to the head of Columbia.\u201d<\/p>\n While the systems may look different \u2014 one enforced by the Kremlin, the other by woke-driven ideology \u2014 for Molochnikov, the result felt eerily similar.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat feeling of being reported on is very similar to Russia,\u201d he said about his time at the university.\u00a0<\/p>\n In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via videoconference in Moscow on April 23, 2026. POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n Several Ivy League institutions came under fire over inaction to campus antisemitism which spiked dramatically in the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel. <\/p>\n The Trump administration cut $400 million<\/a> of federal funds earmarked for Columbia \u2013 while GOP lawmakers railed against some of the nation\u2019s top academic institutions<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n President Trump slammed Princeton, suspending research grants<\/a> totaling $210 million and recently demanded $1 billion<\/a> from Harvard over its failure to protect Jewish students.\u00a0<\/p>\n While at Columbia, Molochnikov said he confronted a new set of \u201cradical problems\u201d \u2013 with students telling him during a writing class \u201cyou\u2019re a white straight male you cannot understand this script.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In an institution meant to foster the discussion of ideas, Molochnikov instead called it out as an environment fostered by fear.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good to think about what you say,\u201d he said, \u201cbut is it good to control every word that comes out of your mouth because you are afraid somebody will report on you?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Aleksandr Molochnikov attends the 35th Annual Gotham Film Awards with FIJI Water at Cipriani Wall Street on December 01, 2025 in New York City. Getty Images for FIJI Water<\/p>\n Instead of honesty in class discussions, students were \u201cscared to say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n While critiquing the Kremlin could land you behind bars today, political differences never impacted workplace practices before the war, Molochnikov explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n In liberal spaces across the US, the director said leftists want a certain decorum used \u2013 an attitude and mindfulness to speech that makes collaboration exhausting.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t feel that way \u2026 it\u2019s just very hard to work actually,\u201d he argued.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n And that tension \u2014 of an uninhibited freedom sits at the center of \u201cSeagull: True Story\u201d Molochnikov\u2019s Off-Broadway play. <\/p>\n Split in to two acts, the first set in Russia and the second in New York City, the play suggests that while the consequences may differ, the instinct to police speech exists in both places.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems very easy that there\u2019s a Big Brother you can complain to,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd your problems will be solved.\u201d<\/p>\n But, Molochnikov warned, that instinct comes with a cost: You \u201close control.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exiled from Russia for defending Ukraine, a rising director expected freedom when he fled for the Big Apple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4660,82445,57,9,24,55,54,56,9045,82446,1076],"class_list":{"0":"post-208058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-first-amendment","9":"tag-kremlin","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-city-news","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-russia","17":"tag-trigger-warnings","18":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}