Russian performers with Putin ties are returning to European stages three years after being blacklisted over Ukraine’s invasion, Politico reported on 6 June.

Three years after European theaters canceled Russian concerts and dropped performers with ties to President Vladimir Putin, some of Russia’s biggest classical music stars are quietly returning to orchestras and stages across the continent, according to Politico.

The comeback includes conductor Valery Gergiev, who is set to perform in Barcelona next year with Russia’s Mariinsky Orchestra as part of the Ibercámera concert series, which lists the EU’s Next Generation fund as a financial supporter. Soprano Anna Netrebko has already resumed performances across Europe, with her schedule packed for the next 18 months from Berlin to Zurich.

Both artists were blacklisted in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The classical music world had imposed what Lithuania’s culture minister called a “mental quarantine” in solidarity with Kyiv.

Ukrainian Culture Minister Mykola Tochytskyi warned that Europe’s arts scene should “think twice” before welcoming Russian performers back, calling the move “very risky.”

“When you have a Russian active cultural action in [your] country, it’s immediately about disinformation and about preparing some kind of act of aggression,” Tochytskyi told Politico. “This is our own experience.”

Gergiev’s controversial return

Valery Gergiev held a propaganda concert in 2008 in the ruined Georgian city of Tskhinvali after Moscow-backed separatists seized the region. He conducted the Leningrad symphony as the audience waved Russian and Ossetian flags, later participated in Putin’s 2012 campaign ad, and signed an open letter supporting the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

After the 2022 invasion, Gergiev was dropped by orchestras from Milan and Munich to Rotterdam and Vienna. He has been sanctioned by Ukraine and has not performed in Europe since the invasion began.

The EU Commission has initiated talks with Spanish authorities to verify that no EU funds have been used for performances involving the pro-Putin conductor, according to a Commission official.

When asked about EU funding, an Ibercámera spokesperson told Politico its concerts had “never been subsidized by the European Union” but admitted seeking an arts grant from the Next Generation EU fund in December 2022.

Netrebko’s comeback

Anna Netrebko supported Putin’s 2012 campaign, met with him repeatedly, and told Russian state media in 2017 it is “impossible to think of a better president for Russia.” In 2014, she gave one million rubles to a pro-Russian separatist leader to rebuild a theater in rebel-held Donetsk.

After the invasion, major opera houses dropped her and she took a months-long hiatus. Kyiv sanctioned her in 2023.

Her comeback began at Palm Beach Opera in February 2024. Despite Ukraine’s formal protest, her Bratislava concert in April sold out.

Russian parliament chairman Vyacheslav Volodin accused her of betraying Russia by speaking against the invasion. “She has a voice, but not a conscience,” he said.

Ukraine’s response

Ukraine’s arts scene has been devastated by the war. A Russian airstrike on a Mariupol theater in March 2022 likely killed hundreds of civilians. Ukrainian opera singer Ihor Voronka died on the front lines in July, while baritone Vasyl Slipak was killed by a Russian sniper in 2016.

Ukrainian director Eugene Lavrenchuk resigned from a Jerusalem production after Russian singers were cast despite his request to avoid them.

“For us Ukrainians, a boycott of everything Russian is not a question of culture and art, it is a question of security,” he told Politico.

Ukrainian Culture Minister Tochytskyi suggested hiring Ukrainian or European performers instead. “In Ukraine, in Poland, in Sweden, we have the artist at the same or sometimes even better quality,” he said.