The Last Minister (TV series)

Producer Aleksandr Tsekalo started developing a black comedy about corrupt bureaucrats originally known as The Ministry[4] in 2015.[5] The pilot was written by Pavel Bardin[6] with Maksim Pezhemsky slated to direct.[7] Due to high level of political censorship on Russian broadcast TV Tsekalo was unable to find a network willing to commission the show,[8][6] but  the emergence of streaming services eventually allowed him to sidestep the obstacle. Roman Volobuev has signed to write and direct the 15-episode first season in 2018.[5] In 2020 the series were renewed for a second season, plus a 40-minute Christmas special[9] which premiered on December 26, 2020.[10]

Volobuev described The Last Minister as "an Aaron Sorkin show were everyone has irrevocably lost their conscience".[11] Some of the show's characters and ideas were borrowed[7] from Volobuev’s aborted miniseries Zavtra about Russia’s liberal opposition unexpectedly winning presidential elections in 2018.[12]

The show's first season was filmed in 2019 over period of 3 months mostly on soundstage in Moscow.[13] Principal photography on the second season started in October 2020.[14]

• Yan Tsapnik as Tikhomirov, Minister of Long-term planning
• Olga Sutulova as Nechaeva, a corrupt 1st Deputy Minister
• Sergey Epishev as Vikentyev, an insane 2nd Deputy Minister
• Sofia Lebedeva as Sonya, a naive intern who's rapidly rising through the Ministry's ranks
• Anna Shepeleva as Ingeborge, a permanently pregnant Minister's personal assistant
• Darya and Ekaterina Nosik as Lutch and Skotch, diabolical twins who run Ministry's Analytical Department
• Alexandra Drozdova as Lera, Sonya's assistant (Season 2)

• Nelli Uvarova as Raisa, Minister's wife
• Olga Dibtseva as Larisa, Minister's mistress
• Polina Fedina as Kira, Minister's teenage daughter
• Fyodor Lavrov as Plotnikov, a functionary from the Prime Minister's Office
• Alisa Khazanova as Antonova, a detective with the Investigative Committee of Russia
• Alexander Iliyn as X, prime minister's chief of staff
• Roman Volobuev as Y, head of the Department of External Policy
• Ekaterina Vilkova as Z, head of the Department of Internal Policy (Season 2)
• Konstantin Murzenko as Father Vitaliy, a liaison with the Russian Orthodox Church
• Ekaterina Gorina as Oksana, an investigative journalist (Season 1)

• Konstantin Bogomolov as Fyodor, a Russia's only Oscar-winning filmmaker
• Andrey Merzlikin as Vasya, Minister's childhood friend and a former gangster
• Anna Chipovskaya as Redkina, a vice president of Pornhub
• Yuri Tsurilo as Ranevskiy, the Governor of Saratov Oblast
• Alexander Gorchilin as Andrey Zvyaginsev (Season 2)
• Timofey Tribuntsev as the voice of the Prime Minister (Seаson 1)
• Aleksandr Bashirov as Prime Minister (Seаson 2)

The show's first season won acclaim from Russian critics for its absurdist setting,[15][16] writing[17] and visual stile.[18] Mikhail Trofimenkov of Kommersant called it “the one comedy to capture and preserve the spirit of ‘era of stability’ (an ironic Russian moniker for Putin's years in power)[19]”. It was also praised for breaking an unofficial ban on LGBTQ characters on Russian TV by making one of its main protagonists — Nechaeva — a closeted lesbian.[20]  Some outlets criticised the series for relying too heavily on inside jokes[21] and playing safe with its political subject matter.[22] Ogoniok’s Andrey Archangelsky called out show’s writing team for “falling too much in love with their own characters, effectively becoming their hostages” and eventually “drifting away from the subjects of big politicts, greed and power-lust towards much safer and well-trodden melodramatic story[23]”.