Ukraine sanctions two singers
OperaThe Ukrainian president Vlodomyr Zelensky has imposed sanctions on 119 Russians and Ukrainians who appear on a list drawn up by the country’s Security Council.
The list includes two singers, opera soprano Anna Netrebko and Eurovision contender Polina Gagarina.
The sanctioned individuals are barred from entering Ukraine and will have their assets frozen.
Ukraine will ;”inform the competent authorities of the European Union, the United States and other countries about the application of the sanctions and encourage them to impose similar restrictive measures’.
It would be good for the EU to join Ukraine in these sanctions.
Amazing fanaticism. Yea team! Let’s win!
“Ukraine will; “inform the competent authorities of the European Union, the United States….”. Competent authorities in the Collective West are on the endangered species list if not already extinct while the SMO meat grinder continues inexorably.
SMO (Social Media Optimization) a form of biased information to promote political and social positions.
“It would be good for the EU to join Ukraine in these sanctions” means
a) good morals
b) achievable practical goals
c) counter-productive results ?
Considering the effects of the economic sanctions, that would be the question. Not that you would ever hear that.
This is my earlier comment: President Zelensky has announced sanctions against against 119 Russians and Ukrainians, including Anna N., which include freezing assets and prohibition to enter the Ukraine. The latter will most likely not ruffle her feathers, but the former … ? Will she also let us all know via Instagram what she thinks of that?
Would they seriously want to appear in a country the Russians have bombed back to the Flintstone era?
There are more than two singers on the list as it also includes Philip Kirkorov, very popular pop singer (and russian answer to Michael Jackson, hehe) – and close friend of Anna Netrebko/Yusif Eyvazov couple and successful Eurovision contestants Dima Bilan and Sergey Lazarev. And some others, but I haven’t seen the full as yet.
Yes, on the list there are also jazz musician Igor Butman, film director Nikita Mikhalkov, propagandist Aleksandr Dugin, some TV presenters, several actors, music producer Iosif Prigozhin and many, many popular singers: Prigozhin’s wife Valeria (Alla Perfilova), Alexander Marshal (Aleksandr Minkov), Aleksandr Panayotov, Irina Allegrova, Alekandr Buinov, Larisa Dolina, Viktoria Daineko, Lolita (Milyavskaya), Stas (Stanislav) Piekha, Anita Tsoy – and even a rapper known as Basta (Vasily Vakulenko) and heavy – metal musician Valery Kipelov… But Netrebko seems to be the only classical singer on that list.
Mr. Le Brecht, you recently criticized a Ukrainian official assigned to Paris who wanted Anna Netrebko barred from performing in an opera. You said his comments were not appropriate. According to Operawire, 119 individuals were sanctioned, most of them Russian show business and film stars as well as media personalities. Included are Oscar winner Nikita Mikhalkov and pop singer Philip Kirkorov, a friend of Anna and her husband. This list of of 119 sounds like the Hollywood Blacklist of the 1950s when suspected leftists were targeted. This time it is Russians who are the victims of “ethnic cleansing.” Mr. Lebrecht, I read the review of your new book, so I know you are well-aware of prejudice in the arts.
Anna Netrebko gave a rebuttal to complaints against her in La Nazione (The Nation) newspaper this weekend. Her comments are supported by past articles in the New York Times and The Guardian, which substantiated that her donation to the Donetsk opera was given to musicians not the government.
Well then, why did she appear with a leader of the separtist movement in the Donetsk, complete with flag and dressed in the colors of that movement, in the photo made as she handed over her “donation”. Was that leader a conductor or representative of an opera house or other music establishment or if a musician, what instrument did/does he play? I am by no means predudiced with regarding the arts, but I am allergic to people who keep changing their narrative just to fit the occasion at hand!
Hello, Dixie, Anna Netrebko stated a few days after the presentation of the money for the Donetsk Opera that the presence of the flag was not planned and she did not recognize it as the separatist flag, according to Reuters on December 9, 2014.She was told to give the one million rubles ($18,439 US) to an official who would give it to the opera. The Guardian confirmed the musicians were grateful for the much-needed cash. Her dress was red and blue, a common combination of colors.This might not satisfy you, but it is supported by online research.
The separatist movement in that region of Ukraine was in response to a successful coup d’etat earlier in the year. How could Anna Yuryevna expect to find and hand over the opera donation to anyone in Donetsk whose sympathy is with the new Kievan regime? That would be ahistorical. Donetsk was never a hotbed of Bandera ideology. Its people had friendly relations with Russia.
You do know that the Donetsk region is at least 85% Russian, right? Yes, the language and religion Zelensky has banned. Also the region that voted twice to leave Ukraine after the Odessa incident. Sorry. Please go back to your Trusted News Initiative networks where you get news as it should be…
Hayne, I am well aware of the identity politics in Ukraine. It is a difficult and complex problem. But at the breakup of the Soviet Union Ukraine was granted independence peacefully. Unfortunately ethnic Ukrainians and Russians due to Soviet times and WWII now generally do not get along and ethnic identity sometimes trumps national identity. How Russia invading Ukraine and bombing the crap out of it is supposed to mend fences and smooth relations I have absolutely no idea.
I urge you to learn the history of how Ukraine was pieced together and the US violent overthrow of the Ukraine govt in 2014 and the consequences after. Once you understand the truth you can never “unsee” it again.
Hayne you are a pro kremlin fool.
“You do know that the Donetsk region is at least 85% Russian, right?”
WRONG, Donetsk was 100% WELSH, and started by a Welshman called Hughes who designed a town on the model of south Wales.
It was called HUSOVKA for this very reason, and the main investors were French, British, and Belgian in a very cosmopolitan racist free multi lingual environment.
It was only others who came along afterwards – particularly a mass murderer called Joseph S who forced the depopulation of large areas of south east Ukraine and planted his KGB led murderers ethnically to cleanse the area starting with the Holodomor.
The process is still ongoing since the KGB putsch of the late 1990s which a drunken old fool from Ural allowed to take place on his watch.
Putin aided and abetted by his SPB based nutters and dear old Sobchak, then reinstalled quite progressively a new Stasi movement inside Russia over the following 15-20yrs while clapping all the people they didn’t like behind bars, – just as they had done under Hunny – Honecker for decades in the wonderful old DDR.
Just get your facts straight, or you look a total fool in public. (and as a Prigozin troll as well).
Donetsk the city was indeed a British city. I was referring to Donetsk Oblast.
The mass starvations in Ukraine also occured in Kazakhstan, Northern Caucasus, Belarus, etc. was cause by the Communist collectivism instituted by Stalin. Socialism at its finest. Look up how the holomodor was created.
As for Putin, yes he is a ruthless SOB. Why did he come into power after Clinton allowed NATO to expand east. Clinton did this after the US explicitly promised not to move one inch east after the fall of the USSR. Have you looked into any Ukraine oligarchs?
How is it that the comedian Zelensky is now a billionaire? He’s not THAT funnt.
Your critic, Hayne, is oblivious to the fact that the lies and deceit of the Clinton and Dubya administration ruined the so-called peace dividend in the immediate aftermath of the end of the Cold War. The hubris of some people who think NATO has the right to determine the proper definition of Ukrainian identity and bliss will forever follow never ceases to amaze me.
You’re connecting Pres Zelensky’s list to the 1950s Hollywood Blacklist seems flawed. Though I have not seen this new list, reporting here views it as a list of Russian citizens, supported by a foreign regime of a country at war with Ukraine. As a sovereign nation, Ukraine has every right to prohibit these Russian nationals from entering their country. The 1950s Blacklist contained American citizens, working in the United States, who were marked by their own government as subversive, often with little evidence. Those on President Zelensky’s list may not be active Russian operatives, but why should they be allowed to siphon precious financial resources from the Ukrainian people, while this war drags on?
Hello, Stuard Young,
The Hollywood Blacklist was organized by movie studios to remove Communists and Communist sympathizers during the Cold War. It was a private group, not sponsored by the US government. The Ukrainian government is sanctioning private individuals who do not live in Ukraine.
The sanctioning is a spiteful attempt to damage the reputation and careers of entertainers and other professional who are not responsible for the invasion of Ukraine. Their only crime is being Russian and receiving awards from the president of Russia. No collusion has been proven.
And to top it all off: Anna N’s manager has announced that the sanctions are not going to impede her life. Business as usual … Anna N. could spare herself and others by simply learning to keep still, quit writing and talking about any and all aspects of this situation. All she does is make it worse. But no! She gives an interview and her agent – I assume with her approval – just had to add his/her two bits to the discussion. I have the distinct impression that Anna N. is simply interested in keeping herself present in the media because THAT is the best PR that one can get. And we – and others like us – are playing her game by commenting. I would advise her to turn her undivided attention to the Aida performances that she is scheduled to sing as of 14 January in Vienna and to otherwise keep her mouth shut, her hands off her computer and the same should apply to her management!
Uncle Miguelito, her new manager has practically the same IQ as her so what do you expect? And she prepares to sing that Aida by having fun in Dubai with her russian friends. So if he catches a severe case of scoliosis before the premiere it will be because of desert germs.
She, of course.
Free speech for me, but not for thee; generally not a concept I agree with, but you are a private citizen and not the government, so I commend you, Dixie, for exercising the principle of freedom of speech while disagreeing with the advice you’ve given to Anna Yuryevna.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WCEwyAYeDA
According to Dixie and Guest, Anna Netrebko should not be allowed to defend herself against false accusations. Since many incorrect statements are made by commenters on Slipped Disc, it is appropriate to allow her defenders to respond. You observed Russians with Anna in Dubai. They are four middle age women who are childhood friends from Krasnodar, not agents from the Kremlin. Anna’s Instagram account is like a travelogue about places she visits. She does not discuss politics.
I was idly scrolling through posts and thought to check this one to test my theory. Sure enough, Potpourri running true to form all over the place.
It is gratifying to see people outing themselves in the internet. Outing oneself has long ceased to be original, but it is nevertheless gratifying for both parties. I am glad you have outed yourself as “defender”. Now if you could induce the other online identities to follow your example, that would clear the air and make things easier for other people who might comment on this blog from time to time. How about changing your moniker to “defender of the –faith– (apologies, of AN)”? Or, if you prefer Italian, the Lingua Franca of opera, how about “Potpourri ama la dea Anna”? It has cachet. It sounds even better in Spanish “Potpourri ama la diosa Anna”