MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday accused Italy of discrimination and said it had caved into anti-Russian lobbying after a planned classical music concert by high-profile Russian conductor Valery Gergiev was cancelled.
Gergiev, who heads Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre and St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, had been expected to lead an Italian orchestra and soloists from the Mariinsky at a concert near Naples on July 27.
But some Italian politicians and Ukrainian and Russian anti-Kremlin activists, including the wife of late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, objected to the concert because of Gergiev’s open support for President Vladimir Putin and what they said was his refusal to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Reggia di Caserta, the grand 18th-century palace which had been due to host the concert, said in a short statement on Monday that the event had been called off. It gave no reason.
Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said in a statement on Wednesday that the museum complex was under the jurisdiction of the central Italian authorities and that she was sorry Italian audiences would be deprived of the opportunity “to experience great Russian music performed by a renowned Russian conductor”.
“We strongly condemn such discriminatory attempts at ‘cancel culture’, carried out by the Italian authorities,” she said, accusing Rome of giving in to pressure from Ukrainian nationalists.
(Reporting by Reuters. Writing by Andrew Osborn and Gleb Stolyarov. Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Mark Potter)
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