You're reading: Lifestyle Blog: Putin supporter Emir Kusturica banned from performing in Kyiv

Pro-Russian Serbian musician and film director Emir Kusturica has been banned from performing at a concert in Kyiv in honor of the thousandth anniversary of the death of Kyivan Rus Prince Volodymyr the Great.

Ukraine’s SBU security service said on July 16 that the decision to ban the controversial artist had been taken after the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine sent a petition against Kusturica being allowed to perform in Ukraine to law-enforcement authorities on July 15. On July 16, the website of Sports Palace, the concert’s venue, posted an announcement of the show’s cancellation.

Kusturica had been billed to perform at an international charity concert in Kyiv’s Palace of Sports, the advertising poster of which proclaims “Love saves the world.” Ukrainian rock bands the Karamazov Brothers and Tabula Rasa and folk band Bozhychy are also billed.

Kusturica has earned the ire of the Ukrainian public for his negative opinions about Ukraine’s EuroMaidan revolution and his vocal support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In the past Kusturica has publicly approved Putin’s policies in the east of Ukraine and said he believed that Russia should defend ethnic Russians who live in Ukraine.

Ukrainians still remember all his earlier statements concerning Ukraine, including one about Nazis being on Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square: “I saw a Nazi who was celebrating the anniversary of the death of another one,” Kusturica once claimed.

News that Kusturica was billed to play at the concert provoked a sharp debate among Ukrainians, some of whom even called it a deliberate provocation. Many Ukrainian Facebook users fumed over the invitation to Kusturica to perform.

“I don’t understand why they’re letting him come here,” one user named Vika Gika commented on July 13.

Another called for a Ukrainian act to replace Kusturica.

“I can’t comprehend it,” wrote a woman logged in as Yulia Bagnenko. “If Ukraine is an independent country, why won’t it prevent this? There’s definitely someone who’s in charge of the event – let’s hold him responsible. Don’t we have any of our own Ukrainian musicians?”

The concert was to be one of a number of events held in honor of Prince Volodymyr the Great. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on organizing the marking of the thousandth anniversary of Prince Volodymyr’s death, which this year also coincides with events to mark the Day of the Christening of Kyivan Rus.

The latter event has been officially marked for the last four years on July 28 with events organized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Russia also wants to get in on the act of celebrating Prince Volodymyr, with the Russian government even promising to dedicate the whole year to commemorating Volodymyr, and to erect a huge statue of him in Moscow.

Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be reached at [email protected]