As someone who spent time hunkered under a desk listening to alarm bells ringing during the era of grade school A-bomb safety drills, it's strange to read about the core nation of the former Soviet Union embracing elements of capitalism beyond oligarchy and organized crime.
Last week, Russia's Communist Party announced that it plans to ban the commercial use of its iconic five-pointed red star symbol by foreign companies by implementing new copyright laws. According to the Moscow Times, Heineken beer, Macy's department store and San Pellegrino mineral water are among companies doing business in Russia that feature red stars on their corporate logos.
Since foreigners "have nothing to do with our symbolism," the chief counsel for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was quoted as saying, the state "must protect our symbols from commercial use by foreign firms." Meanwhile, the party lawyer said, Russian companies should be allowed to associate the red star with their products without paying licensing fees, provided they don't "intentionally distort it or use it in an incorrect form," whatever that means.
Pursuing copyright infringement claims against those three entities could prove problematic, however, since all were formed in the century that preceded the birth of Russia's Communist Party.
Luckily for West Virginia, the Fayette County town of Red Star doesn't do enough business in Russia to attract the attention of Communist copyright lawyers.
While Russian Communists seek to protect and control ownership of their party's "brand," it's worth noting that several former Soviet republics and Eastern Bloc allies, including Georgia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ukraine, have made it illegal to display the red star due to its association with a "totalitarian and criminal ideology."
Meanwhile, the actor selected by Russia's oldest film studio to portray, in an upcoming biopic, the man who helped make that ideology a part of Russian life, has also drawn the wrath of the party.
Earlier this year, Leonardo DiCaprio, who bears a strong physical resemblance to a youthful V.I. Lenin, the first premier of the Soviet Union, was offered the starring role in a movie about Lenin's life and times. Communist officials in St. Petersburg, where the studio is based, threatened to disrupt production of the film if DiCaprio gets the role.
"They should find a Russian actor," a party leader was quoted as saying.
I can see wanting to use a homegrown actor to portray your country's most beloved leader, I mean, did Hollywood really have to go to England to sign Daniel Day-Lewis to portray Honest Abe in Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" when Mel Gibson and Hugh Jackman were available? Oh, that's right - they're Australian.
Perhaps the party official in St. Petersburg had other motives.
After, all DiCaprio has portrayed such pro-capitalism, anti-communism figures as billionaire entrepreneur Howard Hughes in "The Aviator," stock market manipulator Jordan Belfort in "The Wolves of Wall Street," and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in "J. Edgar," perhaps resulting in credibility issues.
And it's more likely that an actor in the former Workers' Paradise would work for a lot less.