Madeleine Spence

Putin wields soft power through Russia’s cultural figures, says Marcel H Van Herpen, author of Putin’s Propaganda Machine — and “soft power is hard power in a velvet glove”

“It is precisely because of the support of the most visible figures of Russian culture that Putin gained his unlimited power and is now using it against humanity in this bloody war that is destroying Ukraine,” said Alexei Ratmansky, former artistic director of the Bolshoi

The pianist Denis Matsuev sold out concerts all over the West but in 2014, the year he became a Unesco goodwill ambassador, he endorsed Putin’s annexation of Crimea. Until recently, globally fêted ballet dancer Sergei Polunin had a large tattoo of Putin on his chest

Netrebko’s saga is a window into the moral panic that rippled through the arts after the invasion. For years Putin supporters had been welcomed by the elites, while oligarch cash found its way into their institutions

Though her statements reopened doors in the West, in Russia she was accused of being a traitor. “There is a voice but no conscience,” wrote Vyacheslav Volodin, one of Putin’s inner circle who has since claimed the massacre in the Ukrainian city of Bucha was staged

Netrebko dodged the Putin question until March 30, when she finally wrote on social media, “I expressly condemn the war against Ukraine.” She claimed she had “met President Putin only a handful of times”, and that she is “not allied with any leader of Russia”

In 2008 Netrebko was made a People’s Artist of Russia. She has been described by the Russian leader as the pride of the nation, and her name appeared on a list of supporters for his re-election campaign in 2012, though her spokesperson says she wasn’t given a choice

But what of Anna Netrebko, the face of New York’s Metropolitan Opera? “I was always aware she was a huge Putin supporter,” director Peter Gelb says, which her spokesperson denies. He told her she must denounce Putin to remain with the Met — but she did not

Olga Smirnova, prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Ballet, was one of many to speak out. “I am against war with all the fibres of my soul,’’ she wrote as she fled to the Netherlands. “I never thought I would be ashamed of Russia … But now I feel that a line has been drawn”

As Putin’s troops entered Ukraine, a new Iron Curtain came down on the international arts scene. The many prominent Russian ballerinas, conductors, singers and musicians had to make a choice: denounce the war, effectively defecting to the West, or face being shut out

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, a complex web of links between the arts world and the Russian state emerged. Has Putin been using culture to wield soft power beyond Russia’s borders? @spencemads reports thetimes.co.uk/article/putin…

Read the full story now 👇 thetimes.co.uk/article/putin…

AP video journalist Msyuslav Chernov reports from the front line, not knowing if he would make it out alive. As one of the last journalists on the ground, death and destruction surrounds him — and he is being hunted by Russian soldiers 📍 Mariupol thetimes.co.uk/article/video…