Moscow, September 25 – Russian actors, including Alexey Panin, Maxim Galkin, Anatoly Bely, and several others, have left the country and are persistently criticizing Russia. However, their own lives abroad are not going smoothly. This article explores the experiences of Russian artists living outside their homeland, as reported by RIA Novosti.
Alexey Panin, who was declared wanted by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs at the end of May, frequently finds himself in scandals. Recently, he was arrested in Estonia for drunken disorderly conduct: the actor, in an intoxicated state, attempted to enter the homes of local residents, mistakenly believing he was in a hotel. The police took him to a sobering-up station. “Officers of the Ida-Harju Police Department and Border Guard of Estonia reported that Alexey Panin was taken to one of the Tallinn sobering-up stations. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide consular assistance to the Russian citizen if necessary,” the Russian embassy stated. Panin tried to refute these claims by posting a video from the airport on his social media, asking an unknown girl to confirm that he was fine. “Do you know who I am? Can I have a moment of your time? I didn’t ask the girl to say anything. We are at Tallinn Airport. The media is just saying that I was detained by the police for something…” he says in the video, published on his Telegram channel. Panin is no stranger to such incidents: in the past, he caused a drunken disturbance on a plane, made controversial statements about the Special Forces, and insulted a police officer in St. Petersburg. However, he has no roles in film or theater, only interviews with Ukrainian artists and journalists who have fled Russia.
Former actor of the Moscow Art Theatre named after A.P. Chekhov, Anatoly Bely, called for the cancellation of the “Lenkom” theater’s tour in Israel. At the “Gabima” national theater, the legendary play “Requiem” by Mark Zakharov was scheduled to be shown at the end of October. The actor expressed his outrage, saying, “Dear experienced Israelis, can you explain to me what this is? […] And most importantly, how can we prevent this disgrace? I truly expect constructive answers and corresponding actions,” Bely wrote on his social media page. Tickets for the performances in Tel Aviv were sold out within a few days, but despite the high demand, the director of “Lenkom,” Mark Varshaver, decided to postpone the tour due to the threat posed by a group of hooligans led by actor Anatoly Bely, who is well-known in Russia. “The fact is that a gang of hooligans, led by actor Anatoly Bely, who is well-known in Russia, are threatening and planning to prevent the ‘Lenkom’ tour. We don’t need problems. As the theater director, the health of my actors and staff is much more important to me – we were supposed to go there with a large group of one hundred people – than the tour. I cannot and will not take risks,” he said. Bely himself has also faced cancellations of his own performances. For example, his project “I’m Here” was not shown in Turkey in May due to the “unstable political situation before the elections.” Opera singer Anna Netrebko has also regularly faced performance cancellations abroad due to her controversial public opinions and “political considerations.” Her concert in Taiwan was canceled in March, and she had planned to perform in Prague in October, but that will not happen either. The organizers justified this decision by citing the “negative attitude from Prague’s political circles” and an emotionally tense atmosphere. Last year, the Bavarian State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York terminated their collaborations with Netrebko. The latter was sued by Netrebko for discrimination based on nationality, breach of contract, and slander, demanding compensation of around $360,000. The reason for this legal action was her refusal to renounce public support for Vladimir Putin against the backdrop of events in Ukraine. However, some of Netrebko’s performances in Europe will still take place. One of the first was “Macbeth” at the Berlin State Opera on September 15. According to a representative of the singer, Netrebko has no plans to perform in Russia for now. In September, the showman Maxim Galkin, who left for Israel with his wife Alla Pugacheva, was scheduled to perform in Estonia, but the concert was canceled for unclear reasons. The same thing happened in Kazakhstan, after which the artist emotionally expressed his discontent on social media, complaining about “backstage bans.” “Where I really have problems, surprisingly, is Kazakhstan, where at the state level, they are actively preventing my concerts in Astana and Almaty. For several months now, my organizers and I have been fighting for these concerts to take place,” Galkin said. However, the organizers later changed their decision and allowed the comedian to perform in Astana.
