The performance on July 27 at the Un'Estate da Re festival in southern Italy will be the first in Europe for Valerij Gergijev since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Italy thus broke a comprehensive EU ban on pro-Kremlin artists after the invitation was approved by Vincenzo De Luca, left-oriented regional chief in Campania. De Luca meant that culture "should not be affected by politics and political logic".
Navalnaya critical
In a text in La Repubblica on Tuesday, Julija Navalnaja, whose husband died in a prison in the Arctic last year, wrote that Gergijev's performance at the festival would be "a gift to the dictator".
Gergijev is seen as one of Russia's most powerful cultural figures and has been rejected from several European concerts, festivals and theaters, including Milan's prestigious La Scala – for refusing to condemn Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
"The terrible and devastating war in Ukraine continues, people are dying every day and Ukrainian cities are burning", wrote Julija Navalnaja.
"How is it possible"
"How is it possible that in the summer of 2025, three years after the conflict in Ukraine began, to invite Valerij Gergijev – Putin's accomplice and a person who is on several countries' sanctions lists – to Italy to participate in a festival?"
Gergijev, 72, has repeatedly expressed his support for Putin, including by participating in a campaign film in 2012, supporting the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and conducting a patriotic concert in the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria in 2016 after Russian forces helped Bashar al-Assad to retake the city.
