Russian culture threatened by the conflict?

“In the world of culture, Russians are used to living things a bit in parallel. Politics does not interfere with artistic politics and vice versa”, explains Laurent Hilaire, former French director of the ballet troupe at the Stanislavski Theater in Moscow. For him, the boycott against the Russians is not the right solution. “They also have families. How do you want them to be pronounced?he argues.

Laurent Hilaire has decided to leave Russia: “I could not stay, as a citizen, and in relation to my values. To stay was to endorse something”. “For average Russians who don’t live at the pace of the West, life also becomes very difficult because they will have less and less money to buy essentials and will withdraw into themselves”explains Marie Mendras, political scientist at the CNRS and CERI.