Ominous Alliance of Arts and Politics

Institutional cultural life in Russia is strongly affiliated with the government. A number of distinguished artists and pedagogues in leading positions—including the rectors of both the Moscow Conservatory, Aleksandr Sokolov, and the Gnesin Academy of Music, Aleksandr Ryzhinsky—have signed a statement in support of Putin’s war on Ukraine, as a TASS article reveals. Today, pianist Elizaveta Miller filed her resignation from the Moscow Conservatory’s faculty of keyboard instruments, protesting against the institution’s official position, and thus possibly anticipating her dismissal as a teacher. Not everybody will have the courage to do so. While I maintain my strong advocacy for keeping in touch with Russian artists and musicians on a personal, non-institutional level, it becomes clearer every day that we inevitably need to discontinue all collaboration with Russian state organisations. Boycott this regime and its allies! #standwithukraine #нетвойне