https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48559289
Russia to make its own show about Chernobyl that implicates the US
Russian state TV is working on its own version of Chernobyl, a series based on the worst nuclear accident in history.
The NTV drama will deviate from the acclaimed HBO series - and from historical reality - by claiming that the CIA was involved in the disaster.
Director Aleksey Muradov claims it will show "what really happened back then".
HBO's miniseries, which concluded on Monday, received the highest ever score for a TV show on IMdB, as well as a 9.1 rating on Russian equivalent Kinopoisk.
But in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia's most widely-read tabloid, Mr Muradov said his version of the show "
proposes an alternative view on the tragedy in Pripyat".
"There is a theory that Americans infiltrated the Chernobyl nuclear power plant," he told the paper. "Many historians do not rule out the possibility that on the day of the explosion, an agent of the enemy's intelligence services was working at the station."
The Hollywood Reporter reports that the Russian culture ministry has contributed 30 million rubles ($463,000; £363,000) to the show.
The No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded on 26 April 1986 in the Ukrainian city of Pripyat.
At least 31 people were killed in the immediate aftermath, and the effects continue to be felt to this day.