Decisions by cultural institutions to cut works by Russian artists and writers are “just stupid”, a member of the Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot has said, as she called for the artistic community to unite against the invasion of Ukraine amid repression of activists in Russia “now at a level none of us have seen before”.
Maria “Masha” Alyokhina, one of Pussy Riot’s founding members, was responding to a string of decisions by cultural and intellectual institutions to cut Russian works, including the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra removing pieces by the composer Tchaikovsky from its programme, the Royal Opera House eliminating the Bolshoi ballet from its summer season, an Italian university cancelling lectures on Dostoevsky, and Netflix paused an adaptation of Anna Karenina.
