Ukraine fumes over Russian ballerina’s tour

Ukraine has demanded the cancelation of performances in South Korea by a renowned ballerina from Russia’s Bolshoi Theater.

Kiev’s embassy has taken issue with a series of shows featuring Svetlana Zakharova scheduled to take place at the Seoul Arts Center in April. The performance, which is a collaboration with the French fashion house Chanel, premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 2019.

Zakharova was born in the Ukrainian city of Lutsk and went to ballet school in Kiev, but is a Russian citizen and a member of the Bolshoi troupe. She also served as an MP for the pro-government United Russia party between 2007 and 2011.

In a statement quoted by South Korean media on Tuesday, Ukrainian diplomats claimed that allowing Zakharova to perform would amount to the “legitimization of Russian unjustified aggression and belittling the suffering of the Ukrainian people.”

“With all due respect to the pluralism of opinion and inclusive nature of cultural exchange, we call on our international partners to suspend cultural cooperation with the criminal Russian regime and its cultural representatives,” the embassy added.

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An unnamed official at the embassy told the Korea Times that Kiev also opposes the performance because the Bolshoi Theatre is “headed by a close friend” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Famed conductor Valery Gergiev, who leads both the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, is among multiple Russian artists who have been blacklisted in Ukraine for their political views and support for the Russian government.

In early March three leading figures with Ukraine’s Lviv Opera’s ballet troupe, including two men of conscription age, failed to return home after a tour in Finland. 

The Russian Embassy has condemned the call to cancel the performance. “Any attempts to politicize cultural events and deny the Korean public the opportunity to experience world-class art would not be accepted by the Korean public,” the embassy said, as quoted by the South Korean press.

Numerous organizations and venues cut ties with Russian artists following the start of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Kiev has further launched an international campaign, calling on theaters, opera houses, and other institutions to drop any cooperation with Russia.

Moscow has condemned reprisals against artists, with Putin arguing that it is “not smart” to try to go after Russian or any other culture. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has argued it is “impossible to cancel Russian culture,” and that any attempts to do so are doomed to fail.