Within about 24 hours last week, Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) first removed from their website their infamous blacklist of 72 opponents of perpetual war, and then posted a rather bizarre “analysis” of the assault upon Russian culture by Ukraine and the West. Apparently, countering “disinformation” now has been expanded to silencing Russian music. The CCD has discovered that Russian music has an “imperial nature,” so a “cultural blockade” — similar to blocking Russian messages and narratives — is part of the mission. https://cpd.gov.ua/main/czpd_analizuye-9/
There are three main points:
1. “[I]n addition to economic sanctions, ‘cultural sanctions’ … were introduced…. We will remind: the trend of ‘renunciation of Russian culture’ … was called ‘cancelled Russian culture’ in the West. Rethinking the imperial nature of Russian culture consists in boycotting Russian artists and refusing to consume Russian cultural products…. Judging by the number of canceled announcements of upcoming events… a cultural blockade” has succeeded. Many contracts with Russian artists “were terminated…. In particular, the conductor… Valery Gergiev, opera singer Anna Netrebko, pianist Denys Matsuev,” among others. Also, the “[i]nternational competition named after Tchaikovsky was expelled from the World Federation of International Music Competitions.”
2. It gets crazier, as, it turns out, Putin wants Russia isolated and might have provoked Kiev to the cultural blockade! The “trend of ‘cancellation’ of Russian culture in the West may be a long-term strategic special operation of the Putin government, aimed at artificially distancing the Russian people from the influence of the democratic values of Western countries. After all, all the aggressive rhetoric of the Russian authorities deliberately provoked the Western countries to limit as much as possible economic, cultural and tourist ties with Russians…. Limiting the Russians’ access to European democratic values… is one of the main tasks of the Kremlin to create a closed society under the leadership of a dictatorial government, following the example of Kim Jong Un in North Korea.” The Kremlin actually wants Western sanctions “to deprive the Russian population of official access to most of the world’s cultural productions, to limit contacts of Russians” the West.
3. Not to fear, the CCD is on the case. Putin’s strategy of “cultural isolation” actually will backfire. First, talented Russians have left Russia, and they can “create real opposition to the Kremlin’s power and shake it from the outside.” But key is that Western hacking will “neutralize the ‘iron curtain’ on the Internet. The main consumer of contraband culture [to be injected into Russia] will be the youth of the Russian Federation, who will eventually form a powerful cultural and political underground of enemies of the Putin regime.”
So, lest it escape notice amongst the craziness, the Kiev regime assaults not but classical music and performers, and prefers to promote and export “contraband culture.” Of some note, “white power rock” has been a major component of the recruitment of neo-Nazi and rage-driven militia recruits in Ukraine for several years.
On a separate note, also last week, Kiev’s shelling of civilians in Donetsk killed an 11-year-old ballet student, prized as a future world-class talent, along with her 70-year-old ballet teacher. They had been walking in a park. https://youtu.be/IQNQ_vT_j-k [Warning: Eva Bartlett’s video report contains a brief glimpse of a mutilated body.]
