Journalist Yuri Tkachev calls the miniseries “a historical fake” and a “propaganda victory” for the Americans. He argues that the show was designed to “reprogram the brains of the younger generation.”
Tkachev praises “Chernobyl” for its attention to detail, but says showrunners presented the events of the nuclear disaster “as darkly as possible.” He also has issues with specific episodes. For example, Tkachev claims that Valery Legasov never hid tape recordings from the KGB in a garbage can outside his apartment. He also criticizes a scene where Pripyat’s city committee meets at the power station’s underground bunker. “That never could have happened, even theoretically,” he says