Or should that be "special cultural operation"? Anyway, arts administrators in the West have been careful to restrict their sanctions to known public supporters of Putin. In music, Valery Gergiev and Anna Netrebko have had contracts cancelled, but performances of the music of Russian composers, even Soviet-era composers, continue. The Royal Ballet has not taken Swan Lake out of its current repertory. Radio 3 has broadcast Tchaikovsky, Prokoviev, Shostakovich and Shchedrin in the last seven days, I have no doubt that the worlds of theatre and film have taken a similar line. Russian culture is an intrinsic part of world culture and only the most knuckle-headed backwoodsmen would dispute that. The quarrel of the West is with Putin and his warmongering clique, not with the Russian people or their culture.
Perhaps Putin should take note of what is happening in his own backyard, as Vasily Petrenko, a man of international repute (and former chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), has suspended his work in Russia until peace is restored in Ukraine:
.In a statement issued six days after Russia launched its assault of Ukraine, which has seen the country hit by air strikes and artillery attacks, St Petersburg-born Petrenko said the "historic and cultural ties between the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, of which I am proud, can never be used to justify Russia's invasion".
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