Zoe Strimpel

The lives of even anti-Putin Russian artists are being made impossible

Zoe Strimpel talks to the Russian artists who have been cancelled since the invasion of Ukraine

Russian artists such as composer Elena Langer are stuck in a Kafkaesque nightmare, struggling to get their work performed either in Russia or the West. Credit: Photo by Anastasia Tikhonova
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Swift and sure, the guillotine blade came down on Russians in the West on 24 February last year, the day Russia invaded Ukraine. The logic was clear as concerned Putin loyalists; cutting them off from western gravy trains in the face of their dear leader’s grotesque aggression made some sense.

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