The Japan Times - Navalny widow blasts Italy's invite for pro-Kremlin maestro

Gergiev, a personal friend of Putin, leads Moscow's world famous Bolshoi Theatre and has been shunned by the West since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine for failing to denounce the war.

But he is to conduct what organisers have described as an "unforgettable symphony concert" on July 27 at the former royal palace of Reggia di Caserta, near Naples in southern Italy.

Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation has called for the concert to be cancelled, and his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, pressed the case in an editorial Tuesday in Italian daily La Repubblica.

"As Putin's cultural ambassador, Valery Gergiev implements Russia's soft power policy. One of his current goals is to normalise the war and Putin's regime," she wrote.

She described the Caserta concert as a "test balloon" for boosting Putin's image in Europe, and noted it was being praised by Russian authorities.

"Forgive me, but if the Kremlin is happy with you in 2025, then you are definitely doing something wrong," she wrote.

Vincenzo De Luca, head of the Campania region that includes the Reggia di Caserta, defended the concert, saying "culture is a tool to keep dialogue open".

He noted an Israeli conductor was also on the summer programme, adding: "We don't ask those men of culture to answer for the political choices of those who lead their respective countries".

But Navalnaya was scathing.

"Any attempt to turn a blind eye to who Valery Gergiev is when he's not conducting, and to pretend that this is merely a cultural event with no political dimension ... is pure hypocrisy," she wrote.

Members of Italy's centre-left opposition Democratic Party have also called for the concert to be cancelled, as has Peter Gelb, general manager of New York's Metropolitan Opera.

Gergiev "is no less than an artistic stand-in for Putin", Gelb, an outspoken supporter of Ukraine, told AFP.

"Previously, he has performed official Russian victory concerts in Georgia in 2008 and in Syria in 2016."

He added: "There can be no 'cultural exchange' with mass murderers and kidnappers of children, which is the current modus operandi of the Russian regime."

Navalny, Putin's main opponent, died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024. His family and supporters say he was killed on Putin's orders.

M.Fujitav--JT