Controversial American rapper Kanye West, whose inflammatory statements have proven too much even for iconoclast investor Elon Musk, has stirred the pot once again, this time by paying a surprise weekend visit to Moscow.
West — who now goes by Ye — was in Russia to celebrate the 40th birthday of fashion designer Gosha Rubchinskiy. Russian state media seized the opportunity to add West to the tiny circle of Western celebrities still approving of Moscow (looking at you, Steven Seagal) since President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The rapper has previously courted infamy with a series of antisemitic remarks and by denying the Holocaust, praising Hitler and declaring himself a Nazi. He has also described himself as a young Putin.
His Moscow jaunt, however, enraged the Russian Orthodox far-right movement Sorok Sorokov, which tasks itself with protecting churches and religious events. The group was created in response to Russian feminist punk group Pussy Riot, which performed an anti-Kremlin song in an Orthodox church in 2012.
In a letter to Russia’s Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service (FSB), dated July 2, activists from the movement claimed lyrics in a song by West and rapper Ty Dolla $ign, “Vultures,” were degrading toward Russian women.
“A singer who in his artwork publicly humiliates Russian women and supports the Ukrainian aggressor … plans to come to Russia,” the letter claimed, asking the authorities to vet the song’s lyrics for drug propaganda and extremism.
The activists also asked Moscow to permanently ban West from entering Russia and to cancel an unconfirmed concert he has proposed to stage there in September.
The FSB now faces having to listen to West’s musical output to assess the allegations.
Moscow has intensified its crackdown on Western artists since it invaded Ukraine more than two years ago. In April, the Russian republic of Chechnya banned songs that the authorities considered too up-tempo — or too down-tempo — to honor the country’s musical traditions and root out Western influences. Last December, some of Russia’s top celebrities were jailed or forced to apologize after attending an “Almost Naked” themed party.
Western governments, meanwhile, have ramped up sanctions on Moscow since its 2022 invasion, while most Western corporations and cultural figures have avoided the country.
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