When Russian pop singer Sergey Lazarev said on Ukrainian TV that he does not share his compatriots’ euphoria about his nation’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, he did not anticipate the backlash at home.
“For me, Crimea is not Russia,” he said on June 22, during an interview with “High Life,” a Ukrainian TV program that focuses on celebrities. “When I come, say, to Yalta (in Crimea), I am used to the idea that Yalta is Ukraine.”
He got hostile – even violent — reactions almost immediately.
“This Lazarev is a jackal. He should be bound by hand and foot everywhere and then we will see how he will lick the asses of (Ukrainian early 20th century nationalist) Stepan Bandera and (U.S. President) Barack Obama,” Svetlana Bredis from Russia wrote in one of the softest comments under the video of Lazarev’s interview on YouTube.
Russian politicians also piled on. Vitaliy Milonov, a member of the St. Petersburg City Council, tweeted: “Lazarev will now tour in Ukraine only. In Russia he may sing in his own toilet.”
Milonov sent letters to Russian music managers asking them to boycott Lazarev. “I mean to deprive any chance to appear on stage in Russia for this man, who says bad things about my country, where he built his career,” Milonov told Russkaya Sluzhba Novostey, a Russian news radio service on June 23.
The day after the TV interview was broadcast, Lazarev told Russian media that his remarks were edited to sound political. But he didn’t retract his words.
Other than him, most Russian stars – many of whom have big followings in Ukraine – have either ignored the conflict or supported the Kremlin’s military invasion. Since March, some 500 show business representatives, including popular singers, movie stars and film directors have signed a joint letter that approves Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Some, like TV star Ivan Okhlobystin, went as far as sending supplies to the armed, Kremlin-backed separatists in Ukraine’s east.
Few Russian celebrities have spoken against President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Andrey Makarevich, a front man of Russian rock band Mashyna Vremeni (Time Machine), is an exception. Makarevich has openly and persistently criticized Putin.
The singer called the Russian military invasion “a horrible mistake” and was among 145,000 people who signed a petition asking Russian authorities to stop the war against Ukraine on www.change.org. A petition condemning Makarevich as a national traitor has also been launched on the same website.
When Makarevich participated in an anti-war march in Moscow on March 15, he was almost attacked for wearing a blue-and-yellow ribbon. “It is not easy for Andrey Vadimovich (Makarevich) now. Thanks to everyone who speaks in his support,” Makarevich’s spokesperson Anton Chernin said on Facebook.
At the same time, some celebrities refuse to take a stand other than being in favor of peace.
Russian rockers Yuriy Shevchuk, Boris Grebenshchikov, Vyacheslav Butusov and Maksim Leonidov recorded a video statement for Ukrainian 1+1 TV station in March, calling on the people of Ukraine and Russia to “live in peace.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected].
