For Russian artists, even staying neutral is a “powerful statement”, Mikhail Baryshnikov believes
Mikhail Baryshnikov, a Soviet Latvian-born Russian-American ballet dancer, has called against targeting Russian culture and sports figures over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
“An open exchange in the arts is always a good thing,” Baryshnikov told The Guardian in an interview published on Sunday. “I don’t think it’s right to put the weight of a country’s political decisions on the backs of artists, or athletes, who may have vulnerable family members in their home country. For people in those exposed positions, neutrality is a powerful statement.”
The ongoing situation is “a Rubicon for Russia”, the dancer, who defected from the Soviet Union to Canada back in 1974, warned. “Either it will find a way to end this current conflict and live in an open global society, or it will be thrust backwards with no hope of recovery,” he claimed.
“Russia is already back in Stalin’s time. The arts are collateral damage and it’s impossible to speculate how that will play out,” Baryshnikov said.
The dancer, alongside other emigrant figures, has launched a crowdfunding project dubbed “True Russia,” said to be aimed at spreading a better understanding of Russian culture. Money raised under the campaign will be distributed between charities helping Ukrainian refugees.
Moscow launched a large-scale assault against the neighboring country in late February following a seven-year standoff over Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk ceasefire agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to regularize the status of the breakaway regions within the Ukrainian state.
Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join NATO. Kiev says the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it had been planning to retake the two rebellious republics by force.
RT (Russia Today) is a state-owned news organization funded by the Russian government. The information provided by this news source is being included by the Libertarian Hub not as an endorsement of the Russian government, but rather because it is being actively censored by Big Tech, Western governments and the corporate press. During times of conflict it is imperative that we have access to both sides of the story so we can form our own opinions, even if both sides are spewing their own propaganda. The censorship of RT, despite likely being a propaganda outfit for the Russian government, reduces our ability to hear one side of the conflict. For that reason, the Libertarian Hub will temporarily republish the RSS feed from RT. Visit https://rt.com
