Russia makes a cultural comeback in the West as Ukraine faces most brutal months of war
Russian actor Yura Borisov (C) and Mikey Madison (R) at the 2025 EE BAFTA Film Awards Dinner in London, England, on Feb. 16, 2025. (Richard Murgatroyd/BAFTA via Getty Images)
For Ukrainians and their supporters, the 82nd annual Venice Film Festival started off with a gut punch as they noticed the return of the Russian flag displayed alongside other countries’ flags at the main venue.
“I can’t believe my eyes: the fascist tricolor of the Russian Federation is flying proudly above the main entrance and the red carpet,” Venice-based Russian artist Katia Margolis wrote on her social media on Aug. 27, the day of the festival’s opening. “The very same flag under which Ukrainians are bombed, tortured, killed, and have their throats slit daily — literally and figuratively.”
The Venice Film Festival’s press office told the Kyiv Independent by phone that it could not comment on the issue and would forward the request to the festival’s organizers by email. As of publication, no response has been received.
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many Western cultural institutions suspended cooperation with Russian artists as a show of solidarity with Ukraine.
Ukrainian cultural figures have also repeatedly called for boycotts, sometimes refusing to appear publicly alongside Russian artists, including those who oppose the Kremlin.
Ukrainian artists emphasize that their goal in calling for boycotts is not to “cancel” Russian culture but to compel the West to better scrutinize its imperialist narratives as it would with cultural output from any other empire.
“Our call for the suspension of cultural cooperation with Russia is not a punitive measure against individuals. It is a strategic necessity designed to dismantle a cultural framework that enables aggression. We invite our (Western) partners into a deeper conversation about their own long-held, and often unexamined, assumptions about Russian culture,” Volodymyr Sheiko, director of the Ukrainian Institute, told the Kyiv Independent.
However, nearly four years into the full-scale war — after thousands of deaths and amid Russia’s escalating attacks on civilians — Western cultural institutions have increasingly welcomed back Russian artists, sometimes even those who support the Kremlin.
From 2022 to now
After years of benefiting from Western audiences while supporting their country’s aggression, pro-Kremlin Russian artists seemed to finally lose access when Russia escalated its war in Ukraine into a full-scale invasion.
This was clear in the opera world: soprano Anna Netrebko was dropped by the Metropolitan Opera in New York and several European venues in 2022 after initially staying silent about the full-scale war.
“I love my homeland of Russia and only seek peace and unity through my art,” Netrebko claimed in one statement following backlash against her.
Before 2022, Netrebko openly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and was photographed with Russian officials at a 2014 event in St. Petersburg, where she donated to an opera house in Russian-occupied Donetsk. She later said her past actions and statements could be “misinterpreted.”
Peter Gelb, the general manager of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, said that he had urged Netrebko to denounce Putin at the start of the full-scale war. She reportedly declined, later stating publicly that it was “wrong” to pressure artists into making political statements. As a result, she was removed from the Metropolitan Opera’s scheduled productions.
“The Met’s position since the start of the invasion had been to sever relations with all Russian artists who were publicly aligned with Putin. Today, our position remains the same,” Gelb told the Kyiv Independent.
But Netrebko’s career has mostly weathered the backlash. Since 2022, she has performed at several venues worldwide and has more shows planned for fall 2025, including a return to the Royal Opera House in the U.K. In late July, a New York federal judge allowed her nationality-based “discrimination” lawsuit to proceed.
Meanwhile, other Russian artists — even more openly supportive of the Kremlin — are slowly being reembraced by the West.
Putin’s close ally, conductor Valery Gergiev, who was initially dismissed as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in 2022 after refusing to publicly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was also recently set to make his return to the European stage.
A scheduled concert at Italy’s Royal Palace of Caserta for late July was ultimately canceled after protests from more than 16,000 people, including Russian opposition leader Yulia Navalnaya.
Organizers tried to claim that “the logic of preclusion…does not help peace.’’ However, Gergiev’s continued roles as artistic director of both Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow is viewed by many as a result of his loyalty to Putin.
“It was troubling to see Gergiev, who functions as Putin’s chief cultural propagandist, receive such an invitation,” Gelb said.
Why is this happening now?
Many Ukrainians are struggling with a sense of abandonment as Russian artists are simultaneously being welcomed back while they fight to keep the world’s attention on the full-scale war.
“We see it being driven by a combination of fading international attention, deep-seated institutional habits and intellectual complacency, as well as business rationale and partners' diminishing resources, which naturally benefits better-funded state actors,” Sheiko said.
Since the war’s outbreak, Western cultural institutions have tried on multiple occasions to bring Ukrainians together with exiled Russian dissidents, hoping to foster public alliances against Putin’s Russia through cultural diplomacy.
But for many Ukrainian artists, the idea of such dialogue feels irrelevant or even insulting. At a time when simply surviving requires constant advocacy, sharing the stage with representatives of a culture that has long suppressed their own feels less like reconciliation and more like erasure.
“Ukrainian artists are more interested in being in dialogue with artists from other countries and cultures — something Ukraine was deprived of throughout its long history of Russian occupation and the suppression of the Ukrainian language and culture,” Ukrainian cultural manager Bohdana Neborak told the Kyiv Independent.
“A vast number of Ukraine’s cultural connections with other countries is simply ignored (by the West), while the idea of dialogue with Russians is elevated as if it were the most important.”
At the same time, the West continues to romanticize Russian culture, even as news of daily war crimes pours in. Some argue that Russia’s cultural contributions should be separated from the atrocities in Ukraine.
Exiled Russian artists have also promoted this view — novelist Mikhail Shishkin famously protested “Don’t Blame Dostoevsky” for the war in The Atlantic in 2023, in which he lamented why Ukrainians were taking down Pushkin statues across Ukraine.
Although it is natural to engage with — and even admire — the culture of imperial powers through a critical lens, Neborak warns that romanticizing Russian culture while the war shows no sign of ending is “an escape from reality.”
“Russia is waging a genocidal war against Ukraine, and this reality is so horrific and exhausting that for many it is easier to once again discuss Russian classics and accept the propagandist notion that Russian culture is deeply humanistic, rather than look for active ways to end the war and bring Russia to justice,” she said.
“Only Russia’s accountability for its crimes can serve as its pass to a democratic future.”
More than three years of Ukrainian calls for cultural boycotts have led some famous western Russophiles to rethink the imperial legacy in Russian culture — American author Elif Batuman wrote a widely-shared article for The New Yorker in 2023 questioning the supposed “universality” of Russian literature “in the shadow of the Ukraine war.”
However, many westerners still don’t understand Ukrainians’ refusal to share cultural platforms with even anti-war Russian artists. There is an ongoing debate in Ukraine’s culture community about to what extent it is acceptable to engage with anti-war Russians — if at all.
“One major problem has been the lack of differentiation between Russians who support the regime and those who actively oppose it. The blanket rejections of Russians, regardless of when they left the country or what views they hold, often alienate potential allies,” Maria Genkin, who serves on the board of directors for the U.S.-based non-profit Razom for Ukraine, told the Kyiv Independent.
The difficulty in winning over Western support for broad boycotts is seen not only in the return of Russian cultural figures but also in the declining visibility of Ukrainians at some events, according to Genkin.
Ukrainian authors Artem Chapeye, Artem Chekh, and Iryna Tsilyk nearly withdrew from the 2023 PEN World Voices Festival after requesting in advance to be informed if Russian artists would participate — but weren’t. The ensuing western media coverage largely overlooked their position: two of them were active service members seeking to honor their military oath.
The festival wasn’t held in 2024, but no Ukrainian authors took part in the 2025 festival, despite a number of Ukrainian books recently being translated into English.
“This kind of outcome does not serve Ukrainian interests,” Genkin added. “I fear it has contributed to fewer invitations for Ukrainian voices at American cultural forums. It marginalizes us in precisely the spaces where our voices are most needed.”
As the West continues to reembrace Russian artists despite the ongoing full-scale war, Ukrainians need to shift from a defensive stance to a more proactive one, according to Sheiko.
“By offering compelling cultural alternatives, building resilient long-term partnerships, and proving our value with professional cultural programming that captivates global audiences, we can secure our permanent place on the world stage — not as a victim to sympathize with, but as an indispensable cultural partner,” he said.
What’s the danger in it?
Some works by Russian artists don’t need to be overtly pro-Kremlin — simply by muddying the reality of a war of total annihilation, they shape Western perceptions at a moment when clarity and strong support for Ukraine are more critical than ever.
Journalist Anastasia Trofimova made the documentary “Russians at War” to “see through the fog of war.” Yet much of the film dwells on nostalgia for “brotherly nations” — a long-standing Kremlin narrative it uses to justify aggression — and even features a Ukrainian fighting on Russia’s side.
Despite immediate controversy when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2023, the documentary continued its global festival run and was later released on video on demand.
Trofimova, who previously worked with Russian state media, claims she embedded with Russian forces in eastern Ukraine without official oversight — a claim met with skepticism by many.
Celebrating Russian artists who remain silent on Ukraine also risks undermining the urgency of the country’s struggle.
Yura Borisov, who became the first Russian actor in 50 years to be nominated for an Oscar in a performance category for his supporting role in “Anora,” is one such figure. With undeniable talent and a commanding screen presence, Borisov is hard to ignore.
Yet for some, his silence off-screen about his country’s actions — especially as his international profile rises — is even harder to overlook.
At the start of Russia’s full-scale war in 2022, Borisov reportedly signed an open anti-war letter with other Russian industry members. But after that, he stayed silent on Ukraine, even during the international press tour for “Anora.”
Before his Hollywood debut, Borisov starred in several Russian state-funded films — most notably the 2020 biopic “AK-47,” which glorifies arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov and was partially filmed in Russian-occupied Crimea. Borisov’s Hollywood talent agency and publicists did not respond to the Kyiv Independent’s request for comment.
Some in the Russian exile community question the point of a star like Borisov speaking out, noting that Ukrainians are unlikely to accept him even if he openly opposes the war, and that doing so could endanger his future in Russia.
However, for Ukrainians — many of whom have lost loved ones and lived under constant threat for over three years — it’s impossible to sympathize with Russian artists who remain silent out of concern for their own safety.
Ukrainian artists are calling on their Russian counterparts in exile to step up, arguing that simply being anti-Kremlin is not enough.
“Any form of interaction with Russian artists may be possible only if they actively support Ukraine – for example, by helping promote Ukrainian culture or organizing rallies in foreign capitals demanding stronger sanctions on Russia and more arms supplies for Ukraine,” Sheiko said.
“We expect them to aspire for Russia’s military defeat and accountability under international law, assume collective responsibility of the Russian society for this war, and embrace and pursue the long overdue decolonization of Russia and its culture. This is undoubtedly a big ask, but any dialogue between Ukrainians and Russians that is not based on such a common denominator is meaningless and futile.”
Note from the author:
Kate Tsurkan here—thank you for reading my latest article. The debates over boycotting Russian artists since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine remain deeply charged and painful. My hope is that this piece helps clarify what’s at stake and untangle some of the complexities in the conversation. If you like reading about this sort of thing, please consider supporting The Kyiv Independent.
