As you can here from a person involved in one of the canceled performances in North Vancouver, BC, Can that this wasn’t taken lightly and seems to be done out of a sense keeping “the peace” ie no protests or worse at the event. It may come as a surprise to some of you but Recital Societies aren’t know for their edgy stance on social issues, in fact they are rather conservative by nature.Cancelling the upcoming performance of Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev | The Early Edition with Stephen Quinn | Live Radio | CBC Listen
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“But I just want the good and just parts of war. Not the part where innocents get killed.”
I favour our strong economic response to Putin’s aggression against Ukraine. And yes, I regret the the harming of Alexander Malofeev career after he’s made a courageous decision to publicly criticize Putin’s foreign policy.
But I’m not going to pretend that the destruction of innocent Russian lives isn’t a direct consequence of the international response I favour. Only wanting the good and just parts of the response doesn’t absolve me of responsibility for the shattered innocent lives that accompany any wide spread national response that human beings are actually involved in.
Going after a piece that applauds Russian nationalism and military prowess (and frequently involves the use of artillery in performance) seems appropriate to me.
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Agreed, and there have been examples of destructive protest. So the real reason for government liquor stores pulling vodka off the shelves is to forestall a patron none-to carefully doing it for them.
If the Russian Community Centre had hung some blue and gold banners, this might not have happened:
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I’m all for sanctions that impact Putin and his oligarchs but the impact on the Russian people opposed to the war has to be taken into consideration. Coupled with the fact that all they can see is state sponsored fake news, if other countries punish them just for being Russian they are going to start agreeing with Putin that the rest of the world is evil.
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You are correct and we should condemn acts of violence against individual Russians, but let’s accept the reality that any policy we choose that attacks Putin will result in individuals apportioning blame on individual Russians.
If we cannot accept the evils that are the result of our policies, we are not in a position to judge their merits relative to each other.
And to be clear, the classical musician people should have no problem cancelling is Valery Gergiev, who for years has explicitly been Putin’s lackey, suck-up, and allround cheerleader, and who profited handsomely from it. Even after this is over his career should be done.
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And I never said it did. Hence my opening words of „it isn’t fair“.
Apropos, Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko, who has been fawned over at the Vienna State Opera for years and even gifted the Austrian citizenship is refusing to renounce Putin and has kept her job regardless.
Many of the sanctions imposed on Russia are going to hit common folk hardest who just want to live in peace.
None of it is fair, it’s war and it sucks
I mean, realistically, “we” kinda did, for right-wing values of “we.”
Does it count as requiring someone to do something if you insist they should have to do it, but then don’t care if they actually did?
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