Alexii Navalny’s widow leads the attack against the performance of Valerij Gergiev, Putin’s supporter, at the festival “A summer from King” in Caserta. But politics, for a good time, should not interfere with a purely cultural event
It is from February 24, 2022 that a sort of witches hunt against everything that is Russian is underway throughout the West. Nobody was saved: athletes, artists, businessmen or sports teams, everyone had to face the media pillory and, often and willingly, the proscription of the various western institutions. The last, in order, is the conductor Valerij Gergievinvited to Caserta to perform on 27 July at Festival “A summer from King”.
Gergiev had already been ostracized in March 2022, a few days after the start of the Russian invasion, when, having refused to condemn “the special military operation” of Moscow, his performance at the Milan Scala had been canceled on the Mayor’s imbeccade Beppe Sala.
Gergiev is in fact guilty of the very good crime to “openly support Putin” and even “be a personal friend of his”. To lead the front of indignadosthis time, is Yulia Navalnajathe widow of the famous political opponent Alexei Navalnydied in February 2024 in a criminal colony at the Arctic Circle.
From the columns of Republicthe widow accuses: “How is it possible that in the summer of 2025, three years after the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Valerij Gergiev, accomplice of Putin and person included in the lists of the penalties of different countries, was suddenly invited to Italy to participate in a festival?”. The answer is actually simple, Gergiev directs orchestras, non -tanks, hunting or regiments of soldiers at the front. Gergiev does not make binding decisions in terms of foreign or internal policy, but deals exclusively with classical music.
It does not matter. The conductor is a “Lacchè di Putin, the singer of Putin’s dictatorship and the war unleashed by him”, we take note. Navalny’s widow therefore proceeds to list the terrible Milfies of Gergiev, guilty of actively supporting the Russian government and its military actions in Ukraine, starting from the annexation of Crimea (moreover considered “Russian irredeteen land” also by Navalny). Here too, though, The conductor limited himself to expressing his support for action by signing “a collective letter of personalities of culture to support the position of Vladimir Putin”, did not enter Sevastopoli with a Kalashnikov in hand.
But Gergiev’s crimes were committed on several continents: «In 2016, Gergiev held a propaganda concert on the ruins of the historic Palmirain Syria, where Putin’s troops had contributed to keeping the dictator Bashar al-Assad in power ». Small note, the city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, had been freed from the ISIS cutswho were proceeding with its systematic destruction.
The point is that, for a good time, It would do well to maintain a clear separation between politics and culture. If the first is highly divisive and, often and willingly, fatal, the second should instead be universaland try, as far as possible, to unite people. Gergiev will go to Caserta to direct an orchestra, not to keep a political rally on the reasons that pushed Putin to invade Ukraine.
What would be the result of applying to the end, and consistently, what is proposed by Navalnaja? No Russian artists who support Putin, no Israeli artists given the war in Gaza, but certainly not even Palestinians, given the terrorist attack of October 7, do we then want to forget the Chinese wicked and their treatment of Uigure or Tibetan minorities? Not to mention the terrible Americans and their invasions and bombings around the world. In short, no one is saved with the Navalnaja method.
What said from Navalny’s widow would make sense if Gergiev’s hosted had been paid by Italian public money, especially for a matter of consistency with respect to what was the position of the Italian government compared to the Russian invasion of Ukraine since the first day, or a firm condemnation in Moscow and support in Kiev. But so it is not, the Ministry of Culture He made it known that he had not paid “neither a contribution, nor a patronage towards the concert. It’s all in the end of the region ».
A few hours later, the question is very “Italianly” which became a source of political quarrels. In fact, the Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli said: «Art is free and cannot be censored. The propaganda, however, even if done with talent, is another thing. For this reason, the concert of the friend and councilor of Putin, Valery Gergiev, wanted, promoted and paid by the Campania Region and which will be held in the Royal Palace of Caserta, autonomous in the choice of which events to host, like all the autonomous institutes of the Ministry of Culture, risks passing a wrong message».
Immediate replica of the governor of the Campania Region, Vincenzo De Luca, Which said: «In Caserta a Russian and an Israeli conductor will perform in Caserta. We do not ask these men of culture to respond to the political choices of those who guide their respective countries. They will have their ideas that can be shared or not, but we do not raise hatred sources ».
Also the former general deputy secretary of the League, Roberto Vannacciintervened in the affair, stating that “we are talking about a musician who has dedicated his whole life to culture and, simply because he is Russian, he would miss the politically acceptable ‘qualities’ that the West requires, therefore he is treated as a war criminal”.
