Russia was ready to come under Western sanctions, but it didn’t expect that punitive measures would have come to hit athletes, media and world of culture. Russian Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov admitted that the Russian government was “ready for sanctions, but did not expect that they would target athletes, intellectuals, actors and journalists”. And Paolo Nori, the author and translator of Russian classics, did not expect it either who, invited to hold a seminar on Fedor Dostoevskij at the Milano Bicocca University, was first postponed the appointment “so as not to provoke tensions” and then reconfirmed for the wave of protests.
But what connection can there ever be between one of the greatest Russian writers – whose influence has been and is heavy on all Western culture – and the rain of missiles on Kiev? None, in hindsight, but someone must be convinced of the opposite, since Mayor Dario Nardella was asked to tear down the statue of Dostoevsky in Florence. “Let’s not get confused,” said the mayor, “This is the insane war of a dictator and his government, not of one people against another. Instead of erasing centuries of Russian culture, let us quickly stop Putin.”
Confusion, in fact. The same one that is having the shows with Russian artists canceled one after the other. It began with the Scala in Milan where the conductor Valery Gergiev, a personal friend of Putin, did not yield to the request of the superintendent Dominique Meyer and the mayor Beppe Sala of distance yourself from war and was replaced on the podium. Then it was the turn of the soprano Anna Netrebko, who, although she condemned the conflict, made it known that she does not intend to go on that stage next March 4th, when she was supposed to go on stage with the opera by Francesco Cilea, Adriana Lecouvreur, on the bill until 19. An episode immediately connected to the Gergiev case, but which – assures Meyer – stems from irritation for a fake news on the health of the singer, who arrived at an already very delicate moment.
“The truth is that Netrebko was sick, she was afraid of having covid and on Sunday she went for a swab. Which turned out negative, but in any case she had to postpone her arrival because she was cold. Of course – explains the superintendent – they wanted to interpret this as a desire to hide behind a ‘fake’ disease in order not to come. In truth she was ready to come. When she read this false information she was furious and now she is not really coming. Anna Netrebko made a very clear statement about Ukraine, yes it behaved well, it distanced itself from the war. He had exemplary behavior. If you put people in psychological situations of this type it is not good for the theater. “As for having subsequently posted a photo of her with the director Gergiev, now disappeared from social networks,” it was a provocation, an escalation of feelings “closed Meyer.
But for a ‘Netrebko case’ that is trying to be closed, another opens: the Yacobson Ballet of St. Petersburg had to “just in spite of” cancel the next Italian tour, including the stage in Ravenna at the Alighieri Theater, “in the face of the impossibility of organizing the trip in the current situation”.
The Venice Biennale is also pending its position and announces that “it is collaborating and will collaborate” in every way with the national participation of Ukraine “in the 59th International Art Exhibition which will open on April 23, is” close to all those who in Russia are courageously opposing the war “and ensures that”it will not close the door on those who defend freedom of expression and demonstrates against the ignoble and unacceptable decision to attack a sovereign state and its defenseless population “.
On the other hand, it will refuse “any form of collaboration with those who have instead implemented or supported a act of aggression of unprecedented gravity, and will not accept the presence at its demonstrations of official delegations, institutions and personalities in any capacity linked to the Russian government “.
For a couple of years we have learned that statues are the main contributors to a certain revisionism and if someone in Florence is angry with the author of ‘Crime and Punishment’, Bari could have a bad quarter of a day. ‘now that of St. Nicholas whose only fault is to be appreciated by Putin, to the point of having an autographed dedication of the Russian president near the pedestal.
“That dedication of Vladimir Putin a few steps from the Basilica of San Nicola must be removed” is the request contained in the petition launched on change.org by a citizen of Bari, Antonio Caso, a student and blogger. The petition in a short time has collected over 11 thousand signatures, even from outside Puglia, and all have joined the desire to ask the Apulian regional council to have the plaque engraved on the brass, dating back to 2003, removed behind the statue of the bishop of Myra on the square in front of the Basilica of San Nicola in Bari.
With a touch of irony, the original intention was to launch a message of peace: “May this gift be testimony not only to the veneration of the great saint by the Russians, but also to the constant aspiration of the peoples of our countries to consolidate ‘friendship and cooperation “Putin wrote to the” citizens of Bari “, given the” centuries-old ties “that unite the Apulian capital to Moscow.