Prominent Russian film director and lawmaker Stanislav Govorukhin has died at the age of 82.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, said on June 14 that Govorukhin died at the Barvikha sanatorium near Moscow after a long illness.
From the 1960s, Govorukhin was one of the most popular film directors in the former Soviet Union and Russia.
Most of the films he directed during the Soviet period were shot at the Odesa Film Studio in Ukraine.
Some of his movies -- Vertical, White Explosion, and the Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed -- were extremely popular in the Soviet Union.
After former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev initiated his reform initiative known as perestroika, Govorukhin produced several documentaries about the realities of life under communism and began getting involved in politics.
In recent years, Govorukhin, a member of the ruling United Russia party, became a strong supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He served as chief of Putin's campaign office in 2011-12.
In 2013, Govorukhin became a senior member of the Putin-led All-Russia Popular Front (ONF) political movement.
In 2014, he signed a letter in support of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.
