When you wish upon a czar.
Move over, Mickey and Minnie — one Moscow politician is plotting to turn his war-mongering and economically failing country into the “Happiest Place on Earth” by building an all-Russian version of Disneyland.
Airat Gibatdinov, a member of Russia’s Council Committee on Culture, is proposing the Kremlin build its own version of the iconic US-based theme park populated with Soviet-era cartoon characters, Russian outlet TASS reported.
He believes that Russian cartoons are ‘Putin’ on better shows than foreign cartoons.
“Our beloved Cheburashka, Crocodile Gena, Winnie the Pooh, Carlson, the characters from ‘Well, Just You Wait!’ and ‘Prostokvashino’ have become a cultural universe truly capable of competing with Western franchises,” Gibatdinov told TASS.
Cheburashka and Gena the Crocodile are Russian cartoon characters created by the Soviet Jewish children’s author Eduard Uspensky in 1966. They became household names in Russia and the subject of animated television series and movies.
Gibatdinov mused naming Russia’s Disney after the character, calling it Cheburlandia.
The Soviet-era cartoon character, Cheburashka, which has large fuzzy brown ears and a circular head, is an animal “unknown to science.”
It has enjoyed a cultural resurgence in Russia after the release of its self titled 3D-animated movie in 2023 and sequel released in December 2025. Both films broke Russian box office records.
The Russian politician sees the establishment of a domestic Disney as a tool of “soft power” that would instill a sense of Russian identity in the country’s youth.
The move comes after Hollywood studios stopped exporting US films to Russia after it launched its war in Ukraine, which may have killed as many as 2 million people on both sides.
