Shvydkoi rules out collective pardon of artists who left the country

There will be no collective amnesty for artists who have left the territory of Russia. This was announced on February 22 by Mikhail Shvydkoy, special representative of the Russian president for international cultural cooperation.

"There can be no collective amnesty. People left and behaved differently," he told RIA Novosti.

According to him, people who left Russia acted differently in the media. Shvydkoy expressed the opinion that artists who took an "active anti-Russian stance" would not be welcome in the country.

The special representative of the Russian president added that among the artists there were people who left the country because of "internal confusion" or other domestic reasons. He specified that people who left but did not publicly oppose Russia would be treated differently.

Last February, Chairman of the Investigative Committee (IC) of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin said that show business stars who left the country and discredited the actions of the Russian Armed Forces (AF) from abroad would answer according to the law of the state in case of their return. He concluded that "traitors are not welcome anywhere," noting that they "have been receiving multimillion-dollar fortunes at the expense of ordinary citizens" for decades.