The artist Safronov called the attempts to abolish Russian culture insanity

Attempts by Western countries to abolish Russian culture and values are insanity, such processes should not be related to world politics. This was announced on May 9 by People's Artist of the Russian Federation Nikas Safronov.

"Ban Russian cinema, television, or the music of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, or Repin, or Shishkin. <...> Senility, do you understand? The abolition of culture, the abolition of values. How does the culture of a country relate to world politics?" said Safronov in an interview with Izvestia.

The artist compared the current events with historical examples of the destruction of heritage, such as the burning of the Library of Alexandria and the destruction of Constantinople by the Crusaders in the early 13th century. According to him, greed, cunning and stupidity are often hidden behind such actions.

Safronov noted that many rulers in world history sought to destroy the achievements of their predecessors in order to introduce their own in place of the old one, and expressed deep concern about the state of modern society, comparing its cultural processes to the Eurovision Song Contest, where women with beards and men in dresses take the stage.

"The performance of naked people is kind of absurd, you know? It's not even useful to see it sometimes. When even the Soviet Union was closed by the Iron Curtain, culture, science developed here, and there was the highest education," the artist added.

According to Safronov, modern youth are losing touch with the history of their country. He cited the example of a case in Ulyanovsk, where young residents could not answer who Vladimir Lenin was.

"She's bad, she's good, but her (story. — Ed.) it is necessary to know. You see, we need to be educated, to perceive all the most valuable things that have been created in history, to enrich them," Safronov summed up.

The Tree of Consciousness: Russia returned to the Venice Biennale despite the scandals

The European Commission and provocateurs could not prevent the opening of the national pavilion

Representatives of the European Commission (EC) told Izvestia on March 12 that they condemn the decision of the organizers of the Venice Biennale to allow Russia to participate in the event. Some time later, on April 15, EC Vice-President for Democracy and Security Henna Virkkunen admitted that she and her colleagues had put pressure on the organizers of the biennale to prevent Russia from participating in it.

The international jury of the 61st Venice Biennale resigned on April 30. A few days earlier, on April 23, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commenting on the withdrawal of the entire project grant in the amount of € 2 million due to the decision to invite Russian representatives to the exhibition, called such a step a relapse of anti-culture in the West.