The Supreme Court of Belarus has labeled a group called BYPOL, which unites former law enforcement officers who support opposition politicians, as a terrorist organization.
Russia has denied attacking civilians in what it calls a "special military operation" launched against Ukraine on February 24, but Western powers say it has repeatedly hit civilian targets in what they call an unprovoked and unjustified invasion. Russia has also been barred from the Eurovision Song Contest and banned from participating in numerous sporting events.
The last time such a campaign was carried out it was by the Nazis in Germany almost 90 years ago, he said, although no books by Russian writers have been banned. Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Rachmaninov are excluded from concert posters, and Russian writers and their books are also banned,’’ Putin said. “The notorious cancel culture has become a cancellation of culture. Spain’s Teatro Real opera house and London's Royal Opera House have canceled performances by Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet, and the philharmonic in Cardiff, Wales, dropped a concert of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's music from its program. Gergiev was dismissed on March 1 as chief conductor of the philharmonic in Munich, Germany, and lost the chance to conduct at La Scala in Milan, Italy, after he failed to condemn Russia's invasion. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater, was among those who participated in the videoconference with Putin on March 25. "I am talking about the gradual discrimination against everything linked to Russia." "Today they are trying to cancel a whole thousand-year culture, our people," he said. Putin complained of the cancellation of a number of Russian cultural events in recent weeks, saying Rowling was also canceled “because she.did not please the fans of so-called gender freedoms," a referenced to a controversy sparked by her opinions on transgender issues.