Open letter from Dalia Stasevska, violinist and conductor
On 11th of March, on the internet page of Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, a controversial statement signed by Valery Gergiev, Yuri Bashmet, Denis Matsuev and 508 additional Russian artists was published. Many famous musicians and other representatives of Russian artists’ community thus announced their direct “support for the position of President of the Russian Federation regarding Ukraine and Crimea”. Because of this, I am directly forced to announce my shock, dismay and disagreement with that particular statement.
Dmitri Shostakovich is widely known as something of an archetype about artist’s ambivalent role in a dictatorship. Although he publicly supported the politics of Stalin’s regime, he later claimed having encountered ‘inner resistance’ against the system all those years. Is this the role of you have taken too, Mr…
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Staunton, May 14 – Polls show that many Russians now view their country as once again a great power as a result of the Crimean Anschluss, but that immediate emotional response while very real is neither accurate – this action alone is insufficient for such a status – nor likely to be any longer lasting than the boost Vladimir Putin got from the Sochi Olympiad.
Voices of Ukraine 