Russia has no intention of cancelling any country’s culture, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday during a working trip to Tver Region. Moscow understands the difference between the people and the elites and respects every nation’s culture, and also considers its own to be part of the world’s heritage, he added.
The president was talking to regional artists when the issue of attempts to “cancel” Russian culture by some Western nations was raised. According to Putin, Moscow has no plans to respond in kind.
“We do not have any unfriendly nations, we have unfriendly elites in those nations,” the president said, adding that the Russian government “has never tried to cancel” any foreign artists or cultural performances. “On the contrary, we believe the Russian culture to be a part of the global one and we take pride [in this fact].”
The Russian authorities seek to take the global cultural context into account and “exclude nothing,” he continued. Those seeking to abolish the culture of a nation inhabited by some 190 million people are “not wise,” the president said, referring to the Western actions during the Ukraine conflict.