Putin: Russia will not cancel world culture

Russians are not perfect, but they never thought of “cancelling” the works of outstanding foreign authors, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with students.

“We were all taught and taught from behind the hillock. Yes, we are not perfect, there is probably something to argue with us, but we never thought of canceling Beethoven or Bach, or O’Henry, and then they thought of canceling Tchaikovsky, ”said the head of state (quote according to TASS).

According to him, Russians will not live without world classics, as they do in the West “without Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.”

In March 2022, after the start of a special operation in Ukraine, Putin condemned “attack on Russian culture” in Western countries. According to him, the “culture of cancellation” in Western society in relation to Russia has turned into the abolition of culture. The President argued that Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov were being “blacked out” from concert posters, Russian writers were being banned, in particular, Fyodor Dostoevsky was being “cancelled”.

In the autumn of that year he notedthat attempts to abolish Russian culture are complete nonsense and nonsense, Russia should not do the same with Ukrainian culture. Putin noted that about 3 million Ukrainians live in Russia, who are citizens of the Russian Federation. According to him, it would be unlawful to ban the Ukrainian language and culture.