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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Luke Harding

Royal Ballet and Opera urged to drop Russian soprano with Putin links

A younger Anna Netrebko, holding flowers, and Putin
Anna Netrebko, who is due to sing in the RBO’s production of Tosca next month, pictured with Putin in 2008. Photograph: Dmitry Lovetsky/AP

More than 50 Ukrainian writers and artists, a cross-party group of UK MPs, and a former New Zealand prime minister have urged the Royal Ballet and Opera to drop the Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko from its new London season.

Netrebko is due to perform in the RBO’s production of Tosca next month. In a letter to the Guardian, the signatories describe her as a “longtime symbol of cultural propaganda for a regime that is responsible for serious war crimes”.

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