Putin Gergiev’s friend should hold when Italy breaks a ban on pro-core artists

Russian conductor Valery Gergiev has been banned from the European stages since the full -scale invasion of Ukraine.

The close ally of Vladimir Putin for many years, the director of Borschoi and Mariinsky Russian state theaters has never spoken against the war.

But a region of southern Italy now invited Gergiev back to Europe, signaling the artist’s rehabilitation, even when Russia’s attacks against Ukraine intensify.

Vincenzo de Luca, who runs the campaign region, insists the concert at Un’ESstate Da Re The festival later this month will continue, despite the growing swelling criticism.

“Culture … should not be influenced by politics and political logic,” de Luca said on Livestream on Friday. “We do not ask these men to answer for the choice made by politicians.”

The 76-year-old local leader had previously called Europe’s broad veto of pro-Pro-Public Artists “The moment of nonsense of madness” at the beginning of the war and announced that he was “proud” to welcome Gergiev in the city.

But Pina Picierno, Vice President of the European Parliament, told the BBC that the resolution of Gergiev’s return was “absolutely unacceptable”.

She calls the star conductor a “cultural mouthpiece for Putin and his crimes.”

The Ukrainian human rights activist and Nobel laureate Alexandra Matvichuk said the invitation of the regional government was “hypocrisy”, not neutrality.

Russian opposition activists also condemned the director’s sudden return. The Foundation for Combating the Corruption of the Late opposition leader Alexei Navalny wants his concert to cancel and call on the Interior Ministry of Italy to ban Gergiev’s entry into the country.

Prior to Russia’s full -scale war in Ukraine, the virtuoso Gergiev was a regular visitor to the stages in Italy and throughout Europe, despite his closeness to Putin.

His long and significant career includes stay in the London Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic.

But invitations to Europe stopped sharply on February 24, 2022.

Hours before the launch of the first Russian missiles in Ukraine, Gergiev was on stage at the La Scala opera in Milan. Then summoned by the mayor of the city to speak against the war, Gergiev chose a silence.

He had immediately dropped out of the account.

Abandoned by his manager, although he called Gergiev the “most large conductor alive”, He was then fired as chief conductor in Munich and removed from the schedules of the concerts across the continent.

That is why the invitation from Italy is so controversial.

Pina Picierno, which is alone from the campaign region, says her call to stop the event is not Russophobic.

“There is no shortage of brilliant Russian artists who decide to separate themselves from Putin’s criminal policy,” she told the BBC.

The European MP, who says she has received threats to her work by exposing Russia’s hybrid war, warns that he allows Gergiev to perform, would be both wrong and dangerous.

“This is not about censorship. Gergeev is part of the Kremlin’s deliberate strategy. He is one of their cultural envoys to mitigate Western public opinion. This is part of their war.”

The cultural dispute broke out after a week when Italy hosted state heads from all over Europe to confirm its support for Ukraine and to discuss how to restore the country after the war was over.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been a strong and consistent critic of Vladimir Putin from the beginning. But its Ministry of Culture is one of the supporters of Unstable to Ray, who invited Gergiev.

Senior Melon Member of the Meloni Party from Italy, Alfredo Antoniosi, described Gergiev as “just a great artist”.

“If the Russians have to pay for the mistakes of their president, then we make a kind of cultural genocide,” he argued.

Last month, Canada officially banned Gergiev from entering and announced that he would freeze all assets.

But the European Union has deviated from official sanctions on the conductor, who avoids exposing open support for the war.

Gergiev has been a vocal supporter of Putin since the 1990s, later a campaign to re-elevate it and supported the illegal annexation of Crimea in Russia in 2014.

He was handed over to him by the Moscow Theater in Bolshoi, in addition to the theater of Mariinski, who took over by a director who signed an open letter against the war of Russia.

Gergiev is a civil servant, but in 2022 an investigation by Alexei Navalny’s team revealed properties in several Italian cities that he said he had never declared.

They also claim that he used a charity fund donations to pay for his own lavish lifestyle.

Activists say this is Gergiev’s award for his public loyalty to Putin.

So far, the BBC has failed to reach the conductor for comment.

European Commission spokesman Eva Hrnzirova explained that the Non -State Festival would not receive money in the EU: it is funded by its own “rapprochement funds” in Italy.

However, she added that the committee called on the European stages not to give a place “to artists who support the war of aggression in Ukraine.”

In the campaign, the artistic director, who made this year’s program at the festival, declined to comment. A spokesman was convinced that Gergiev’s performance would move on – despite the dispute.

“Yes,” he assured the BBC. “For sure.”

Additional reporting from Rome by Davide Ghiglione.