Russian show business is also no stranger to the conflict in Ukraine. Last year there were artists who left Russia, others refused to dance with the “Z” and go on stages with patriotic symbols, and there were those who saw their performances suspended for criticizing official policy. In Russia, only those close to the Kremlin are guaranteed a performance. Outside of Russia, the situation is different, since in very close “friendly” countries, in Central Asia, concerts by both pro-Kremlin artists and others who have condemned the war have been cancelled.
It should not come as a surprise that rapper Alisher Morgenshtern, declared a “foreign agent” by Russia in May 2022, was prevented from performing in Kyrgyzstan. But it is true that in neighboring Kazakhstan Grigori Leps, who openly defends Russian intervention in Ukraine and is sanctioned by the European Union.
Morgenshtern, 25, whose birth name is Alisher Valéyev, was due to perform at the Alga music festival in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, on June 23. But the government of the country was opposed. Vice Minister of Culture Chinguiz Esengul said in a letter that he was incompatible with the country’s traditions and moral values.
The case of the rapper, immensely popular in Russia, reached the parliament of the small Central Asian republic, reports Kloop.kz. “You are allowing people like him into Kyrgyzstan. He looks like a devil, with all those tattoos all over his body. You need money. But don’t they need the youth of Kyrgyzstan at all?” MP Shailoobek Atazov told Culture Ministry officials. Parliamentarian Alisher Kozuev assured that he “corrupts society” and is a “bad influence” on youth.
Accused in Russia of selling narcotics, charges his lawyers have denied, the rapper left at the end of 2021 and currently lives in the United Arab Emirates.
Days before, the Bishkek authorities canceled the performance of the well-known Russian punk band Pornofilmy. Critical of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, the gang has settled in Georgia. Its leader, Alexander Rusakov, has said that he suspects that they were not allowed to act due to pressure from Moscow.
In Kazakhstan, the most important country in the region by size and economic weight, it was the pressure from activists and the public that frustrated a concert in Qonaev by singer-songwriter Grigori Leps (of his real name Lepsveridze), 60 years old. One of the best-known voices of the Russian song, had to take the stage on July 8, but the pressure on the networks against the organizers for bringing an artist who supports the military conflict in Ukraine ended up forcing them to cancel the concert.
In June, Leps and fellow singer Nikolai Baskov promised Russian soldiers one million rubles (10,000 euros) for every Western tank destroyed in Ukraine.
It is the second time in a few months that Leps has had to cancel plans in Kazakhstan. In March she was going to participate in the Zhara (heat, in Russian) music festival, with the presence of about 30 pro-Putin artists. The Astana government canceled the concert due to the “unstable situation in the world.”
That festival had previously been canceled in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, in the Caucasus, and in Uzbekistan, where it was scheduled to take place in its capital, Tashkent, for May 20-21.
The former Soviet republics of Central Asia remain in the sphere of influence and in alliances with Moscow. This week, the leaders of four of them, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, have participated in the virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, led by Russia and China. Kazakhstan benefited in January 2022 from its membership of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military alliance led by Russia, as Russia sent an armed contingent to suppress anti-government riots.
Even so, Kazakh President Kasim-Yomart Tokayev has been able to tell Russian President Vladimir Putin to his face and in public that he disagrees. At last year’s St. Petersburg Economic Forum, he assured the Kremlin chief that his country considered Donetsk and Luhansk part of Ukraine.
