As a result of Russian's senseless aggression against it's neighbouring country, Ukraine, big parts of the world have agreed on heavy sanctions against Russia, which cripples it's economy in various ways, and punishes it's leaders. There are also other sanctions like Russia being removed from Eurovision, the soccer tournament 2022 FIFA World Cup and most recently also 2024 UEFA Euro.
This has made Russia want to respond in various ways, and like Entertainment Weekly can report, the country has now decided to boycott the 2023 Oscars in the category International Feature Film. While it's sad to see culture getting affected by a dictator's pointless war, we doubt it will make any major difference to most Academy Awards fans, as the last time Russia won the category was in 1994 with Burnt by the Sun.
Russian movie makers have reportedly protested this decision, but we doubt it will get reversed.