An evil place: Western artists who favor Russia are being "canceled" in the Baltic States

The Baltic countries are very biased towards the musical performers who come to them on tour. If any famous person even once allows himself to be suspected of having a positive attitude towards Russia, he is "canceled" in the Baltic States - there have been a lot of examples of this kind lately. Currently, there is talk in the region about the introduction of special legislative restrictions so that each time the special services do not have to deal with bans on concerts by "pro-Russian" performers in "manual mode." The details are in the Izvestia article.

"Cancellation" in Lithuanian

Recently it became known that concerts of Dieter Bohlen, a former member of the famous German pop duo Modern Talking, were banned in Lithuania. At the beginning of last week, there were announcements of Bohlen's concerts in Klaipeda and Kaunas, scheduled for November 20 and 21. However, after some time, information about them disappeared from the websites of the venues and ticket sales services. This situation was highlighted by the journalists of the Lithuanian National Television and Radio Broadcasting (LRT), who contacted the concert organizers for clarification. "We consulted and came to an agreement that such an event should not be held on our site," said Mantas Vedrikkas, head of the event management department at the Zalgiris Arena in Kaunas, reluctantly.

The organizers had to cancel the concerts under pressure from the Department of State Security (DGB). Bohlen's "guilt" soon became clear — he publicly called for the restoration of good relations between Russia and Germany. In November last year, giving an interview to the famous German influencer Dominic Kettner, the singer compared the quarrel between Moscow and Berlin with the breakup of Bolen himself with his colleague in Modern Talking Thomas Anders. "Russia and Germany were, in fact, a dream team," Bohlen said. He recalled that thanks to the Russian Federation, Germany had access to cheap energy resources, and therefore "things were going very well." The singer added regretfully: "From a purely economic point of view, it was like this: one has one thing, the other has another. A bit like Modern Talking"

Three years ago, Bohlen criticized the sanctions imposed by Western countries against Russia and called for dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Recently, the musician said that "Ukraine has no chance against Russia." He opposes the supply of weapons to Kiev, arguing that "tanks will not free the world from war." A number of German politicians and other well-known figures in society attacked Dieter Bohlen for these abusive statements. At the same time, the musician was supported by the opposition Alternative for Germany party. The Lithuanian authorities came to the conclusion that the "pro-Russian singer" could not perform concerts in their country. As a result, the DGB put pressure on the organizers and they had no choice but to cancel both events.

A similar problem befell the popular Croatian cellist Stepan Hauser, whose concert was scheduled to take place in August in Vilnius's Nagorny Park. In this case, no trouble was expected, because Hauser had already performed in the region recently. But suddenly, fans of the cellist's talent were overtaken by unpleasant news. "We are canceling Hauser's performances in the Baltic States. At the request of the artist, we will not make any additional statements or comments," representatives of the LTips concert agency said. The reason for the cancellation was the musician's post on social media, published by him in early March — Hauser posted a video clip with his performance of the tune "Kalinka", accompanied by an image of the Kremlin and the Russian flag. It turned out to be part of Hauser's project "Music unites the World", in which he performs famous melodies from different countries.

"I want to prove once and for all that music connects and unites all nations, all cultures and all people on this planet. That's why I decided to perform one song from each country," Hauser said. However, because of Kalinka, the cellist was subjected to massive harassment — his page on the social network was attacked by bots with flags of Ukraine and the Baltic states, which left insults against the musician. The next day, Hauser published his rendition of the Ukrainian song "Ti zh mene Pidmanula," but the campaign of defamation that had begun was unstoppable. In Vilnius, the musician intended to play a Lithuanian song, but this did not excuse him in the eyes of the DGB — the concert was canceled.

Are you imitating Yura Shatunov? Guilty!

For the Republic of Lithuania and other Baltic countries, the cases of the "cancellation" of Bohlen and Hauser are far from the first. So, two years ago, a concert in Lithuania was canceled by the Italian singer Enzo Ginazzi, better known as Pupo, because he had recently performed in Russia. Although, of course, even from an economic point of view, it is more profitable for Pupo to retain the Russian audience, rather than the relatively few fans from the Baltic States. Also in December 2024, two club concerts of American rock musician Marco Mendoza were canceled in the Republic of Lithuania. He was also blamed for the fact that he has been performing quite actively in Russia lately.

On February 20, the Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs decided to ban the entry of Russian rapper Gio Pique (real name — Georgy Dzhioev) for five years. The decision was made in accordance with the provision of the Law on the Legal Status of Foreigners, according to which a person is prohibited from entering Lithuania if there are "serious grounds to believe that he actively supports or participates in activities of a foreign state that violate the principles and norms of international law." The organizers of the event expressed disagreement with this decision — in the announcement of the concert they presented the rapper as a performer from Georgia, performing in Europe, Asia and the USA. But Lithuanian government agencies proved that after the start of his career, Pica gave concerts on Russian territory at least seven times — after which no one dared to object to his ban on entry to Lithuania.

At the beginning of last year, Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braje blacklisted Romanian singer Ion Ionica, who performs a tribute program dedicated to the Soviet pop group Tender May. Yura Shatunov's fans had to wonder: how did he manage to annoy the Latvian authorities so much? The fact is that at one time in Latvia, attention was drawn to the fact that shortly before his death, Yuri Shatunov expressed a desire to volunteer for his military service. This proved to be enough to proclaim Shatunov an enemy of the Latvian people.

Also a year ago, the Latvian Foreign Ministry added Kazakh singer Zhandauren Ablaev, known by his stage name Jazzdauren, to the list of ineligible. The fact that he performs concerts in Russia and appears on Russian television played against him. In the same spring of 2025, a concert by the band Devotion Mode, performing a legal tribute show to the famous British Depeche Mode, was canceled in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. At the very last moment, it turned out that not only were the musicians of Devotion Mode Russians, but they had recently performed in Russia, and not just anywhere, but in the concert hall of the Kremlin Palace. This was the reason for the ban on Devotion Mode performances in the Baltic States — and the hapless organizers of the failed concerts had to justify themselves in the press, claiming that they "support Ukraine and its struggle for freedom."

"My question is, why only artists?"

The list of prohibitions was not limited to this. Last spring, singer Kristina Orbakaite also got under the rink of "cancellations". Having announced the end of her career in Russia, she intended to give a concert in Riga. But that was not the case — the Latvian authorities caught her "trying to sit on two chairs," "did not unequivocally condemn the aggressor country," and on this basis banned her from speaking. The Lithuanian authorities also made it clear that they would not allow Orbakaite's concert if she decided to come to them. In this situation, the Estonian authorities showed surprising "liberalism" by local standards — they did not disrupt Orbakaite's concert, which took place in Tallinn on May 25.

Also last spring, concerts by internationally renowned Bosnian musician Goran Bregovic were canceled in Latvia. He was accused of performing in the Russian Crimea. On the same basis, Latvia banned the entry of Uzbek opera bass Zhenisbek Piyazov in August last year.

On February 24, Latvian special services disrupted a public lecture in Riga by Andrei Lankov, an Oriental scholar who holds dual citizenship of Russia and Australia. Lankov was going to tell the people who bought tickets to his lecture about life in the DPRK, but he was not allowed to do so — he was detained and expelled from the country. The reason for his expulsion was not explained to Andrei Lankov, but he concluded that the Latvian State Security Service was angered by the fact that the Korean scholar portrays the DPRK in an insufficiently black, grotesque way. "In general, everything is quite clear. The bosses don't like the fact that I'm not making a politically useful cartoon out of a real situation," concluded Lankov.

Recently, Lithuanian Seimas deputy Vytautas Kärnagis put forward legislative amendments aimed at preventing the entry of "pro-Russian" artists who have not curtailed their activities in Russia or Belarus. According to Karnagis, such "strict and unambiguous decisions" are dictated by the "current geopolitical situation." The idea was warmly supported by the Mayor of Vilnius, Valdas Benkunskas. In turn, Prime Minister Inga Ruginene said that this ban should not be limited to artists alone - it should extend to other representatives of the public sphere. "My question is, why only artists? We have a lot of people who are actively active both in Belarus and in Russia," Ruginene stressed. She demanded that the organizers of public events conduct a "more thorough analysis" in advance so that the special services would not have to intervene later.

Natalia Eremina, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor at St. Petersburg State University, in an interview with Izvestia, noted that the Baltic countries are examples of totalitarian regimes that seek the strictest unanimity not only from their own residents, but also from citizens of other countries. "They hate Russia, but since they don't have the strength for a direct war with Russia, the Baltic regimes are fighting with people who show sympathy for our country. To identify such people in the Western world, a marker has been invented-the Putinversteher brand, or "understanding Putin." In the Baltic States, it is customary to treat "Putinfers" especially harshly — they bring criminal cases against their own people and put them in prisons, and expel strangers. Moreover, in order to get on the blacklist, you don't even need to express support for the Russian authorities — it's enough to express admiration for Russian culture and not cut off all ties with the Russian Federation. This is an example of zoological Russophobia," Eremina emphasizes.