Putin said an “unexpected thing” at a forum in St. Petersburg

While waiting for Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of the International Cultural Forum, they discussed the main news of the day, namely the expected (but not confirmed) resignation of the director of the Bolshoi Theater Vladimir Urin and the potential transfer of his powers to Valery Gergiev.

“Look, I’m all in black,” Vladimir Kekhman, the already established director of two theaters (Mikhailovsky in St. Petersburg and the Gorky Moscow Art Theater in Moscow), theatrically exclaimed in response to a question about how he felt about such a prospect. However, a minute later, he said that in fact the Bolshoi Theater was terribly lucky and called the authorities’ supposed decision “brilliant.”

The hero of the day neither confirmed nor denied rumors about his appointment. According to Gergiev, he works so much that “it doesn’t matter anymore – two cities, three theaters, four regions.” “I was not looking for an opportunity to work even more,” he assured.

From this one could conclude: he is ready for new responsibilities, but does not intend to ask for them.

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, in turn, politely denied: Putin’s meeting with either Gergiev or Urin, according to him, is not planned today.

And only Emir Kusturica did not seem to care about the Bolshoi Theater at all: the Serbian director was preoccupied with his own grandiose plans. In the near future, he is preparing to shoot several films at once, all based on the works of Russian and Russian writers. The list includes Gogol, Dostoevsky and Vodolazkin. But the problem is, Kusturica complained already at the plenary session with the participation of Vladimir Putin, you can only get an Oscar either by being transgender or by filming about trans people.

This year, the President decided not to limit himself to the welcoming speech with which he traditionally addressed the forum participants, and to hold a detailed conversation with cultural figures, as they say, on a wide range of issues. Including about transgender people.

“Yes, indeed,” Putin agreed with Kusturica, “we see that in all sorts of competitions in the West, in order to win you need to either tell, or write, or show the life of sexual minorities, transgender people, transformers, many different names there.” “But now I’ll say something unexpected,” the president warned. And indeed, in light of recent trends, he acted quite unexpectedly.

“These topics, these people have the right to win, show, tell. This is also part of society, this is what people live with,” he suddenly admitted. The only thing GDP doesn’t like is that “they are the only ones who win competitions.” Equality, in his opinion, should be everywhere – including in competitions in the field of culture.

Obviously, these words gave courage to the moderator of the plenary session, Mikhail Shvydkoy, who, after numerous equivocations and references to the fact that “many asked to ask because they themselves are afraid,” and “at my age I have nothing to lose,” asked whether it was worth ostracizing cultural figures who initially spoke emotionally about the North Military District, but have already redeemed themselves for their “emotionality” with trips to the Donbass.

In response, Putin first read a quatrain by Omar Khayyam about a drop that began to cry because of parting with the sea and now does not know what happiness is. And then he quoted one of Gaidai’s heroes: “Let’s drink to the fact that, no matter how high we fly, we will never be separated from the team!” In principle, the meaning of his answer to Shvydkoy (and everyone interested) was already clear, but the president decided to clarify. “We need to take into account the mood in Russian society and the opinion of the people of our country. This is such an objective factor that no one can escape,” he said.

At the same time, Putin recognized the human right to have his own opinion, different from the opinion of the majority. “We should judge not by words, but by what they do. If this activity is connected with causing damage to one’s own country and one’s own people, that’s one story. If it’s just an opinion, a point of view, an assessment of the situation, that’s different,” he said.

In general, according to the president, a person’s head is given not only to speak, but also to think. This is what we need to do.

The Minister of Culture of South Africa (and this year’s forum in St. Petersburg, for obvious reasons, attracted especially many representatives of the fifth continent, as well as Asia and Latin America) asked Putin how he sees a multipolar world. “Fair,” he answered straight away. And for the umpteenth time he explained that the previous world order was based on colonialism and Western hegemony, which have not been eliminated to this day.

And multipolarity is just a reliable way to finally make the world more just. “It will take into account the interests of all countries and will allow us to balance interests,” Putin said enthusiastically. “How can we hear everyone’s voice?” – Shvydkoy was worried. “It’s difficult, but we need to strive for it,” the president answered and reminded that the other path was well known.

“This is a declaration of the exclusivity of someone, dividing people into first and second class, like … meat,” he found a suitable comparison of GDP, and for foreign guests he explained that meat can be first class, and sometimes second. In human society, in his opinion, this should not happen. “It’s not natural.”

Then the ministers of culture of Belarus and Kazakhstan and several other friendly countries spoke. The unfriendly ones were not represented at such a high level, but they still existed. They all complained about attempts to cancel Russian culture, television, etc.

But Vladimir Putin explained in his opening speech that this is impossible: “With the notorious abolition, as well as with the so-called anti-Russian sanctions, the authors of these ideas, as they say, did not work out from the very beginning… The policy of abolition of Russia itself, according to is inherently anti-cultural, neo-colonial and inherently racist.”

Deputy Elena Yampolskaya asked Putin to support a bill to limit the use of Anglicisms and other foreign words, which through her efforts was submitted to the State Duma. She assured that it does not talk about banning foreign languages, the goal is “to return our language to the place it should occupy.”

Vladimir Putin, in his answer, recalled how in the past “boots made abroad and other samples were put on display.” “And this is probably right, we needed such models… But we always slide to extremes, we always lack pragmatism,” he complained, noting that we should not be shy about taking the best from the West, East and South, but at the same time do not forget about your own roots. As for the bill, they will “look at it” and, most likely, “support it.” “I just don’t know the details,” the president apologized.

However, Mikhail Shvydkoy, just in case, immediately asked the president not to ban words such as “Hermitage” and forum. Otherwise, next year there will be nowhere to gather and nothing to hold.

Then there were many more speakers, but one person remained stubbornly silent. This man was Valery Gergiev. Even when it came to Palmyra, where he gave a concert immediately after the expulsion of the militants, the director of the Mariinsky Theater did not take the floor. And Vladimir Putin didn’t seem to notice him either. And this meant only one thing: the expected event at the Forum would not happen, and Georgiev’s appointment to the Bolshoi Theater would not be publicly announced.

That is, someday, most likely, it will be, but a good actor, as you know, should be able to hold a long pause