Will Ukraine punish Russian artists for touring in occupied Crimea?

Анастасія Діденко
·
15:05, 02 November
Will Ukraine punish Russian artists for touring in occupied Crimea?
Image source: etvnet.com

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky responded to a petition authored by TV presenter Ihor Kondratyuk regarding a ban on Russian concerts in Ukraine. In his petition, Kondratyuk asks to completely ban tours and concerts of performers who have Russian citizenship until the end of the war in the east and the return of Ukrainian Crimea. The presenter offered to allow only those Russian artists who openly supported Ukraine to perform.

The producer is convinced that the citizens of the aggressor country who work in entertainment: artists, actors/actresses, do not really carry any culture. The representatives of the aggressor country, who remained silent and thus supported the occupation of Crimea and the war in the eastern Donbas, are also responsible for Russia’s aggressive actions by their silence. Exceptions to the ban are allowed only for those Russian cultural figures who have publicly opposed Russian aggression.

“It is unnatural when an artist performs for both the Russian occupiers and the Ukrainians they occupy. The love for the bearers of the aggressor’s culture develops in Ukrainians the so-called Stockholm syndrome. This must be avoided if we do not want more losses, and we must win this just war for Ukraine and Ukrainians. Music and other arts from the aggressor cannot be outside politics during the war. Because they are a continuation of the war by other methods - methods of interest of Ukrainians in the aggressor's culture, from whose weapons thousands of Ukrainians died and millions of displaced persons were persecuted", - Kondratyuk stressed in the petition.

Volodymyr Zelensky replied that the current legislation already provides mechanisms for control and restriction of performances of performers - citizens of the Russian Federation.

In addition, Ukrainian law prohibits any mass events that spread Russian propaganda or justify Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories.

According to the Law on Television and Radio Broadcasting, TV channels cannot broadcast concerts or TV programs with the participation of people who threaten the security of Ukraine.

The President sent a petition to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov, and the Head of the Security Service Ivan Bananov with a request to instruct, by their competence:

  • to process the submitted proposals,
  • to analyze the state of compliance with the requirements of the relevant legislation, in particular the Law of Ukraine "On touring events in Ukraine" in terms of touring events, the participants of which are citizens of the aggressor state,
  • to work out issues on improving the system of their organization and conduct, strengthening the responsibility for violating the requirements of this Law.

Serhiy Parkhomenko, an activist of the international movement LiberateCrimea and an expert at the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, does not expect any decisive steps to ban Russian artists/performers from visiting Ukraine with their "cultural events".

The activist believes that Ukrainian legislation is imperfect in terms of responsibility for violation of the procedure for entry/exit from occupied Crimea. He also noted that the list of cultural figures whose actions pose a threat to the national security of Ukraine is drawn up by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.

He explained that the Ministry of Culture does not have the authority to create sanctions lists. This can only be done by the SBU, the Verkhovna Rada, the National Bank, but not by the Ministry of Culture.

On October 19, the Ministry of Culture added 21 people to the black list (the full list is on the Ministry's website). Today it includes 228 surnames. Two of the participants in this list have already died - Joseph Kobzon and Oleg Tabakov, and the singer Morgenstern is mentioned twice - once under his own name (Valeev/Morgenstern Alisher Tagirovich), the second - under a stage name.

The representative of the international movement "LiberateCrimea" believes that such errors indicate the ineffectiveness of the state authorities working in this direction. He also noted that the cultural expansion of Russia in Crimea once laid the foundation for the occupation.

Cultural and linguistic expansion marked the beginning of the occupation of Crimea even before 2014. They paved the way for the “green men” to emerge, who ended the occupation by force. 

Sergei Parkhomenko believes that with a sufficient amount of political will, all violators can be quickly added to the sanctions lists.

Read also: CRC calls on the SBU to ban the entry of artists from Russia

The Crimean Tatar Resource Center has previously asked the SBU to verify information about the visit of Russian singers to the temporarily occupied Crimea. Among them are Basta, Yolka, and Iryna Krug.

"Officially, the SBU did not provide information to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center regarding our appeal. There are unofficial sources, which say that there are no obstacles for the singers to enter the territory of Ukraine and they are allowed to cross the border safely”, - Parkhomenko said.

Iryna Krug gave a concert on October 8 in Kyiv. Activists picketed the event, claiming that she was performing in occupied Crimea. Irina's ex-husband and concert organizer claims that the singer did not perform in Crimea.

Serhiy Parkhomenko believes that Ukrainians should directly ask Russian artists who come to Ukraine: "Whose is Crimea?" In his opinion, the citizens of the Russian Federation bear a collective responsibility to Ukrainians for the actions of the Russian authorities.

Read also: Russian singer Yolka postpones her concerts in Ukraine