For Russian artists, even staying neutral is a “powerful statement”, Mikhail Baryshnikov believes
FILE PHOTO. Mikhail Baryshnikov. © AP / Jordan Strauss
Mikhail Baryshnikov, a Soviet Latvian-born Russian-American ballet dancer, has called against targeting Russian culture and sports figures over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
“An open exchange in the arts is always a good thing,” Baryshnikov told The Guardian in an interview published on Sunday. “I don’t think it’s right to put the weight of a country’s political decisions on the backs of artists, or athletes, who may have vulnerable family members in their home country. For people in those exposed positions, neutrality is a powerful statement.”
The ongoing situation is “a Rubicon for Russia”, the dancer, who defected from the Soviet Union to Canada back in 1974, warned. “Either it will find a way to end this current conflict and live in an open global society, or it will be thrust backwards with no hope of recovery,” he claimed.
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“Russia is already back in Stalin’s time. The arts are collateral damage and it’s impossible to speculate how that will play out,” Baryshnikov said.
The dancer, alongside other emigrant figures, has launched a crowdfunding project dubbed “True Russia,” said to be aimed at spreading a better understanding of Russian culture. Money raised under the campaign will be distributed between charities helping Ukrainian refugees.
Moscow launched a large-scale assault against the neighboring country in late February following a seven-year standoff over Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk ceasefire agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to regularize the status of the breakaway regions within the Ukrainian state.
Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join NATO. Kiev says the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it had been planning to retake the two rebellious republics by force.
