The use of European funds to finance a performance by Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, a supporter of Vladimir Putin, at the "Un’Estate da RE" festival in Italy is unacceptable.
This was stated on social media platform X by Vice President of the European Parliament, Pina Picierno.
“There are those who, after three and a half years of war, still do not understand that supporting Putin’s regime — even through such initiatives — is legitimizing his vile imperialism and poses a serious problem,” Picierno wrote, referring to the participation of the pro-Kremlin figure in an EU-funded event.
The Vice President of the European Parliament publicly appealed to the festival’s director and the President of the Campania region in Italy, Vincenzo De Luca, urging them to intervene, change the event’s program, and “ensure that taxpayers’ money does not end up in the pocket of a supporter of a criminal regime.”
She also called on the European Commission to “take preventive measures to ensure that EU funds are not used to support cultural initiatives involving individuals close to the Russian regime, especially when their actions and views contradict the fundamental values of the European Union.”
Following the G7 summit in Canada this June, the country’s Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a new round of sanctions against Russia. One of the individuals included in the sanctions list was conductor Valery Gergiev, an outspoken supporter of Vladimir Putin who, according to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, plays a significant role in reinforcing Putin’s dictatorship and spreading Kremlin propaganda.
According to the War & Sanctions portal, in March 2014 Gergiev publicly supported Russia’s annexation of Crimea and signed a letter to Putin endorsing the move.
In February 2022, numerous global theaters and philharmonics cut ties with Gergiev after he refused to speak out against Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Instead, in March 2022, Gergiev performed at a rally-concert titled “For a world without Nazism! For Russia! For the President!” marking the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea and supporting Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.
