The following statement was released today by the Schiller Institute, especially for circulation in New York City and other cities and art centers internationally.
“Will Carnegie Hall Denounce Nazism in Ukraine?”
“Carnegie Hall, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Italy’s Teatro alla Scala, the Munich Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and probably others have joined in a McCarthyite witch-hunt against prominent Russian artists, including renowned conductor Valery Gergiev.
“Carnegie Hall has cancelled the appearance at a three-concert series of both Gergiev and pianist Denis Matsuev, while in actions straight out of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee, other musical institutions are demanding that Gergiev state his answer to the question: ‘Are you, or have you ever been a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin?’
“In doing so, it would certainly seem that these Western musical institutions have taken a political stand in defense of war-mongering circles centered in London and Washington, circles bent on nothing less than the economic and political destruction of the nation of Russia. These circles have been training and supporting Nazis in Ukraine, overt admirers of Adolf Hitler and Stepan Bandera. It has even been mooted that nuclear weapons will be put into the hands of the Nazi-dominated Kiev government that was put into power by a NATO-backed coup in February 2014. These circles have also continued to adamantly refuse to acknowledge Russia’s concerns over the vital threat to Russia’s national security.
