cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39000710

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Pro-Putin orchestra conductor Valery Gergiev will not be taking the stage in Italy next week. The Italian news agency ANSA reported the cancellation of a concert that had been scheduled for July 27 in Caserta. The move comes after efforts by the Alexei Navalny-founded Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), as well as Ukrainian and antiwar Russian activists and the Vice President of the European Parliament, Pina Picierno, who all demanded that the concert be called off due to Gergiev’s close ties to the Russian dictator.

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Gergiev has acted as an authorized representative for Putin during elections, has signed letters supporting the annexation of Crimea, and has not spoken out against Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At the time of the report, a petition calling for the concert’s cancellation had gathered more than 19,000 signatures. If the performance went ahead, it would have marked Gergiev’s first appearance on stage in Western Europe since Russia unleashed its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.

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