Name: Armando Iannucci.

Age: 53.

Status: Big in Russia.

Is there a market for barbed political satire in the former Soviet Union? Oh God, no. You’ve misread big to mean popular.

How should I have read it? Try “the subject of widespread, hate-filled paranoia”.

That doesn’t sound good. To be fair, you could argue that Iannucci was asking for it. His new film is called The Death of Stalin, after all.

Are the Russians suggesting it isn’t historically accurate? It’s worse than that. A spokesperson for the Russian Communist party has called the film “disgusting”. Another described it as a “form of psychological warfare” against Russia.

Blimey. Wait, there’s more. A Russian newspaper has written it off as a “nasty send-up” and called for it to be banned in the country. A government official has also wondered if it’s part of a western plot to undermine Russian stability.

This isn’t the first time that Iannucci has satirised something, is it? Of course not. His series Veep is a satire of American politics, and that wasn’t banned in America. The Thick of It was a satire of British politics, and that wasn’t banned in Britain.

And don’t forget that episode of The Armando Iannucci Show where he called some camels “tossers”. Well, yes, this does all seem to suggest that the Russian government is somewhat easier to provoke than a camel. That’s a very good point.

So why all the outrage? It might be because Joseph Stalin is Russia’s all-time most beloved historical figure. Just this June, in fact, he topped a nationwide poll to discover the most outstanding person in world history.

It’d be like making a satire about Churchill. You mean like Churchill: The Hollywood Years?

I haven’t seen that. Was that banned too? No. You haven’t seen it because it was crap.

What an interesting poll you mentioned, though. Who came second? Vladimir Putin.

Oh. Yep.

So The Death of Stalin is a terrible piece of anti-Russia propaganda? On the contrary; it received ecstatic reviews from all non-Russian outlets. Our own Peter Bradshaw even called it “the film of the year”. I trust him over the Russians any day.

Do say: “Russians hate to see their historical icons being mocked.”

Don’t say: “They quite like Time Trumpet, though.”