As students around the world celebrate their graduation from high school, this year’s graduation season looks markedly different in Russia than it does in neighboring Ukraine. While graduates in Russia’s two largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, enjoyed lavish celebrations, many graduates in Ukraine have seen their schools destroyed in Russia’s four-month invasion of their…
In Vladimir Putin’s 2021 essay about Ukraine, he wrote that Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians are all descendants of Ancient Rus and shared “the same historical and spiritual space.” Kyiv was “the mother of all Russian cities,” he quoted, and stated that “both the nobility and the common people perceived Rus as a common territory.” He…
The Russian capital played host to over 100 fashion shows this week as part of Moscow Fashion Week. While Moscow Fashion Week was always meant to showcase Russian fashion house’s designs, this year’s event placed a particular emphasis on domestic brands after virtually every Western brand exited the Russian market over the invasion of Ukraine.…
Pop singer Yuri Shatunov, who was wildly popular in the 1980s and 1990s, died Thursday at the age of 48. “Last night Yuri’s heart stopped in an ambulance,” said Shatunov’s manager, Arkady Kudryashov, the state-run news agency TASS reported. Shatunov was perhaps best known as the frontman of band Laskovy Mai (‘Gentle May’), which filled…
Renowned Russian film director Alexander Sokurov was prevented from leaving Russia due to “an order of the prime minister,” the director told Russian independent news outlet The Insider. Sokurov, known for his films “Russian Ark” and “Faust,” planned to cross the Russian-Finnish border by car and then fly to a conference on arts education in Milan,…
June 12 marks Russia Day: a national holiday that sees Muscovites flock to festivities and firework shows across the city. First celebrated in 1992, the date commemorates when the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic first declared state sovereignty in 1990. But 30 years on, the holiday is not only being celebrated in Russia itself —…
In ancient Russia, embroidery was more than a form of art: It was a language unto its own. Cloth and thread took the place of paper and ink, while symbols and motifs made up their own alphabet — all woven together according to the grammar of deep-seated folk traditions. In a celebration of these traditions,…
Russia celebrated the 350th birthday of Peter the Great, one of its most famous tsars, on Thursday. Celebrations were held in Peter’s namesake city St. Petersburg and Moscow to mark the anniversary of his birth on June 9, 1672. A pivotal figure in the country’s history, Peter led efforts to modernize Russia, expand its territory…
More than three centuries after he sought to bring Russia closer to Europe, Russians on Thursday marked the 350th birthday of tsar Peter the Great with the country deeply isolated over the Ukraine conflict. Inspired by time spent abroad, Peter made huge efforts to modernize his vast and under-developed nation during his rule from 1682…
Every year the Cannes Film Festival is dominated by certain topics with a particular political focus. This year’s theme was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Discussions and disputes began when the film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” by Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov was entered into the main competition. The president of the European Film Academy Agnieszka Holland criticized…
Every year the Pushkin House in London awards a prize for the best non-fiction book about or from the Russian-speaking world published in English. In past years they have winnowed down the dozens if not hundreds of contenders to a short list of six books for their jury to read, discuss, and vote on. But…
While rising prices, a sweeping disappearance of foreign brands and entertainment, and a general clampdown on anti-war feeling have all impacted life for Russians since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine, life in the Russian capital Moscow largely continues on as normal. And as the war shows no signs of a resolution, popular summertime events…
Of all the forms of art in Russia, documentary film is having the most difficult time. The trials of the profession were made very clear at the end of March when the 15th edition of Russia’s largest documentary festival Artdocfest was canceled after the organizer, filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, was splashed with red paint by protesters…
Red Nail Polish Every day I look at photographs of the war. I look and look. Destroyed cities, burned cars, dead people. Red nail polish on a dead hand. Every day, no matter where I am, I think that planes are flying over me, that I’m the one who has to run to the bomb…
At one of Moscow’s newest museum exhibitions, visitors are greeted with posters describing how “NATO is fraught with war” and images of people injured in U.S. bombings as the sound of approaching war planes wails from loudspeakers. “NATO: A chronicle of cruelty” opened its doors in Moscow’s Museum of Contemporary Russian History last month, a…
Thousands of schoolchildren gathered on Red Square wearing red hats and neckerchiefs Sunday as Russia’s Communist Party inducted new members of the Pioneers, the party’s youth organization during the U.S.S.R. During the event marking the youth organization’s 100th anniversary, roughly 5,000 children aged 9 to 14 were given the title “All-Russian Pioneers.” While the Young…
At this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov spoke out strongly — and obscenely — against the war Russia has launched in Ukraine but was criticized for wanting economic sanctions lifted from one of his backers, oligarch Roman Abramovich. Serebrennikov’s film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” was the only film from Russia presented at the…
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, on the surface, everyday life in Moscow has remained fairly unchanged. But amid the usual urban clamor, many have noticed the growing presence of Soviet-era symbols and icons throughout the city, often alongside motifs designed to drum up pro-war sentiment.
Russian superstar ballerina Olga Smirnova quit the Bolshoi Ballet over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine but says the famed dance company will outlive the vagaries of war. “History changes, but the Bolshoi stays,” Smirnova told AFP as she rehearsed in Amsterdam, where she joined the Dutch National Ballet in March. Smirnova, who made headlines when she…
Ukrainian film director, producer, and media mogul Alexander Rodnyansky is developing a TV series based on the book “All the Kremlin’s Men” by acclaimed Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, Rodnyansky told Variety magazine. The series, Rodnyansky said, charted the rise of Vladimir Putin from a minor KGB officer to president. Rodnyansky described the series as a…
Ukrainian film director, producer and media mogul Alexander Rodnyansky is developing a television series based on the book “All the Kremlin’s Men” by acclaimed Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, Rodnyansky told Variety magazine. The series, which Rodnyansky described as a Russian “House of Cards,” will chart the rise of Vladimir Putin from a minor KGB officer…
Australian Luminosity Entertainment will produce a new film that will shed light on the life and tragic death of acclaimed Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, according to information published by Deadline. The film titled “Mother Russia” will be directed by British director James Strong best known for his work on the crime…
At the beginning of 20th century, Ukraine’s cinema was world famous, largely thanks to its revered filmmaker Oleksandr Dovzhenko. Considered to be the father of Ukrainian cinema and one of the key figures of Soviet avant-garde, Dovzhenko made films that have inspired generations of Ukrainian filmmakers to create films of great poetic symbolism that were…
In Ivanovo oblast not far from Moscow, one in four villages has been abandoned in the last decade. An artist, Alexei Mednoy, grew up in a village but hadn’t been back for about 15 years after his father died. When he returned, he found silent and empty houses, slowly falling down amid overgrown fields. He…
Russian film and theater director Kirill Serebrennikov is working on an Eduard Limonov biopic with BAFTA winner Ben Whishaw starring as Limonov, Variety magazine reported. The film, titled “Limonov, The Ballad of Eddie” tells the story of the Russian writer and political activist over the decades. It is based on the best-selling novel “Limonov” by…
Harry Gray, a 26-year-old British cycling campaigner and clothing designer in Salford, Manchester didn’t anticipate that his poster would go viral. The poster has a simple message: Fight Putin / Ride a Bike. The war in Ukraine has shone a light on much of the world’s reliance on Russian gas, which accounts for some 40%…
Russia’s Bolshoi Theater has announced it is canceling the performances directed by Kirill Serebrennikov and Timofey Kulyabin who have spoken out against Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine. Late Sunday, Russia’s top theater announced that instead of the three performances of “Nureev,” a ballet directed by Serebrennikov, the audiences this week will see a production of…
“I can’t speak in Russian to my daughter in the street anymore,” an artist living in Rome told The Moscow Times. “And I have no hope that I will be invited to show my works anywhere.” Since the war began in Ukraine, Russian cultural figures have found themselves locked out of the international cultural scene.…
“I started drawing the victims on the second day of the war, one portrait a day, so that the process does not become mechanical. I search Facebook for the words ‘загинув’ and ‘загинула,’ ‘died’ in Ukrainian, and then I look for more information on the names. Most often there are two photos at best, and…
The CSKA (Central Army Sports Club) ice hockey arena is no longer up to international standards, so its main sponsor, Rosneft, has joined with the Defense Ministry to build a new sports complex. Since the new complex requires more space, a historic swimming pool that was a pale blue fixture for decades on Leningradsky Prospekt…
Russian artist Ksenia Sorokina, who won the prestigious theater award Zolotaya Maska (Golden Mask) for best costume design, donated her prize to Sasha Skochilenko. Skochilenko, an artist and a political activist, was jailed this month for an anti-war action. Sorokina’s friend and fellow Zolotaya Maska laureate, theater director Yevgeniya Berkovich, shared Ksenia’s words on Facebook.…
The artist Daria Apakhonchich, who was declared a “foreign agent” in 2020, sent a decidedly non-standard quarterly report to the Russian Justice Ministry. On her Facebook page she explained that every three months she is required by law to send a report on her activities, including details of her income, to the ministry. Since the…
The Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a “rehabilitation of nazism” case against a Kyiv-born Russian artist Oleg Kulik, art magazine Artgid reported today. Kulik’s 2018 installation titled “The Big Mother” was exhibited at an art fair in Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor. The central piece of the installation was a statue of a woman holding a…
The Tretyakov Gallery, one of Russia’s biggest and oldest arts museums, has closed the exhibition of Russian-American artist Grisha Bruskin’s works allegedly at the request of the Ministry of Culture. According to the museum’s website, the exhibition was closed for “technical reasons.” However, independent Russian arts magazine Artgid reported that the Ministry of Culture demanded…
The Moscow Times had a chance to speak with Maria Danilova, one of our former reporters who is the author of a novel for children that has, sadly, relevance today. “Anya, Here and There” is the story of a little girl who moves to New York City from Russia. Danilova was born in Moscow but…
Russians seeking to leave their country amid the war in Ukraine have limited options. Many have flocked to Armenia, where they don’t need a visa to enter, creating a small, makeshift community in the capital Yerevan in a matter of weeks. Some members of this new diaspora have left in protest against the war, some…
Artist Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi grew up in Kyiv before moving to Israel with her family at age 14 in 1991. Except for a brief visit in 1996, she didn’t start to visit her homeland until 2014. A few years later when she was pregnant with her daughter, she began to paint what she remembered of her…
Dozens of paintings by renowned Russian artists including Wassily Kandinsky are stuck in Seoul after an exhibition due to flight sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, organizers said Monday. The paintings by around 50 Russian artists — including Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, and Alexander Rodchenko, among others — have been on display in central Seoul…
Russia’s most prominent political cartoonist Sergei Elkin announced Wednesday that he had left Russia amid a wartime crackdown on journalism. He is now in Bulgaria. Over the years, Elkin has lampooned politicians, businessmen, and international elites in media outlets across the world — including The Moscow Times, who published his series, “Putin’s Russia” in print…
Moscow police halted a piano recital featuring a well-known Ukrainian composer’s music Wednesday after receiving an anonymous bomb threat warning. Video from the Rassvet cultural center shows two uniformed officers disrupting Russian pianist Alexei Lyubimov’s performance of Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov’s song cycle “Stufen” accompanied by verses of classic Russian poets. Lyubimov continues to play…
The author of “Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America” told the audience at a roundtable event at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association that the world was seeing his playbook unfold “right in front of our eyes.” A former U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency officer, Koffler, 56, said, “Putin’s ultimate goal with Ukraine is to…
“First Face of War,” a portrait of a woman badly wounded during a Russian military attack in Ukraine, has become an image that encapsulates the calamity of war. Zhenya Gershman, a Russian-born American artist, was inspired by a photograph by Wolfgang Schwan that was taken after the 52-year-old Ukrainian teacher survived a bombing by Russian…
Russian art works valued at $46 million impounded by Finland last week were released and arrived in St. Petersburg today. On Monday the Russian state news agency RIA reported that three vehicles containing the art works had left Finland on April 9 and arrived in St. Petersburg. The works, which included paintings, statues and antiques, had…
Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NArFU) is Russia’s largest in the north and from the campus near the city center of Arkhangelsk, rector Elena Kudryashova has signed numerous partnership agreements with universities in the Scandinavian north. In 2011, the founding father of the Barents Euro-Arctic cooperation, Thorvald Stoltenberg, was appointed Honorary Doctor at the university. Now,…
After years spent translating Hollywood films, Russian Mila Grekova was suddenly thrown out of work after Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine. Five Hollywood giants — Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Sony Pictures and Paramount — have all stopped releasing new films there, leaving Russian cinemas bereft of the latest blockbusters. But it has not made Grekova…
Despite the ban on virtually any form of protest – even standing alone on the street with a blank piece of paper will get you detained – Russians are protesting anyway. In Moscow a man in a black wool hat with his hands tied behind his back with a strip of sheeting lay in street…
Apr 04, 2022 – 05:37 pm Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which has moved into its second month, has forced millions to flee their homes. The attacks have been targeting Ukraine’s civilian sites and pose a great threat to the country’s historical and cultural heritage. As Ukrainians show stiff military resistance, Kyiv’s residents do all they…
The highlight of the Grammy music awards presentation in Las Vegas on Sunday turned was the appearance of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who in a pre-taped address told audience to spread the “truth about this war” and asked for support. “War. What could be more the antithesis of music but the silence of ruined cities…
Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater held a performance Saturday to support the families of Russian soldiers who died during Russia’s “military operation” in Ukraine. The performance was Aram Khachaturian’s ballet Spartacus, the story of a gladiator who led a rebellion of slaves against the Roman Empire. The Bolshoi site noted that this was the first performance of…
As Ukrainian citizens are forced to leave their apartments and houses to hide or flee the country, most people are bringing their cats and dogs along with them. Some of the pets settle in with their humans in cellars, bomb shelters, underground bunkers or metro stations. Others make the long trek on foot, car, or…
The day before Russia launched its war against Ukraine, I was in the seaside city of Sochi in southern Russia, not far from the Ukrainian border, attending an arts festival and enjoying a break from the dark and snowy Moscow winter among palm trees and verdant hillsides. Sochi is on the Black Sea, as is…
The 15th ArtDocFest, Russia’s largest festival of documentary films, ended before it began last night in Moscow. As Vitaly Mansky, a documentary filmmaker and president of the festival, was about the enter the theater for the opening, he was splashed with paint by protesters from Russian nationalist group SERB (South-East Radical Bloc). Over the years…
The Kremlin on Friday offered to “explain” Moscow’s actions in Ukraine to French actor Gerard Depardieu after he denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “crazy, unacceptable excesses.” Depardieu, a long-time star in France before Peter Weir’s 1990 film “Green Card” made him a Hollywood celebrity, left France and took up Russian nationality in 2013 to protest…
The Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater announced on Friday that it was cancelling a performance of opera singer Anna Netrebko scheduled for June 2. The announcement cited the statement Netrebko made this week condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine. Noting her European residence, the theater concluded that the “opportunity to perform on European stages…
The Russian art world continues to be in political and physical flux. The Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko, whose previous support for Vladimir Putin and ambiguous statements about the war in Ukraine resulted in dozens of cancelled performances, tried to set the record straight again on Wednesday. “I expressly condemn the war on Ukraine and…
On March 3, a week after Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. and other governments around the world introduced harsh sanctions against Russian officials and the oligarchs who benefited from the regime in Moscow. The White House announced that governments “all over the world will work to identify and freeze the assets Russian elites and their…
On Feb. 23, Daria Serenko, a Moscow political activist, was finally released from a fifteen-day jail sentence. Daria had been arrested for an Instagram post she had made in 2021 that featured “extremist” symbols associated with anti-corruption firebrand Alexei Navalny. She was exhausted. Her only wish was to get some sleep. The next day when…
In St. Petersburg there is a new kind of protest that so far has not been stopped by the authorities. Participants make tiny protesters out of clay, paper, wire or other craft material. Most of them hold placards against the war in Ukraine. After they are made, their creators – all anonymous – place them…
Hollywood —Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist Oksana Baiul says she still cannot believe what is happening in her home country. In an emotionally charged roundtable session before the Hollywood Foreign Press Association the skating star said when “Putin announced the invasion I couldn’t believe it.” “I speak to people [in Ukraine] frequently and what Russian soldiers…
International sanctions against Russia, the devaluation of the ruble and politics at the governmental and individual level have left works of art stranded and are causing museums to frantically revise exhibition schedules that had been set years ago. The Morozov collection of late 19th and early 20th century European and Russian art, so valuable that…