those who cancel Russian culture are robbing themselves – Kommersant

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russian artists are now facing aggressive discrimination and attempts to “cancel” Russian culture. Those who seek to do this are robbing themselves, the president believes.

“Now such support is especially important: Russian, domestic art, our artists are faced with well-known, quite aggressive discrimination, with attempts to “cancel” our history, music, ballet, theater, literature, painting, our achievements in this area. It is obvious that those who have taken this path, who seek to erase Russian culture from the world heritage, are first of all robbing themselves,” Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with members of the board of trustees of the Mariinsky Theater (quoted from website Kremlin).

Previously, Vladimir Putin repeatedly claimed, that in the West there is currently a thriving “cancel culture”, ostracism and suppression of facts that do not fit into the mold. According to him, in Western countries Russian writers are banned and anyone whose position goes beyond generally accepted norms is discredited. At the same time, some European politicians oppose the abolition of Russian culture. Among them is the President of Italy Sergio Mattarella and head of the German Ministry of Culture Claudia Roth.

At the same time, in Russia also periodically cancel screening of films and performances by Western authors. For example, in April, the Alexandrinsky Theater canceled showings of the production of “Cyrano de Bergerac” based on the play by French playwright Edmond Rostand. Earlier, one of the spectators filed a complaint against the performance about discrediting the armed forces.

Erdni Kagaltynov