AIBU to think that people shouldn't lose their livelihoods because of their government?

[Untern]

And that this is fucking insane?

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/04/russian-soprano-anna-netrebko-met-opera-russia

This new Puritanism is getting out of hand. Here you have a professional musician at the top of her game with a limited time span to reap the rewards for her talent having her earning power curtailed because everyone in the western world has lost their fucking mind about Putin, conveniently forgetting that it was the western world, not a Russian soprano soloist, that gave him all the power he has in the first place.

Jesus Christ, even at the height of the cold war Russian artistes were able to move to the west and earn there.

What the fuck is happening here?

@Untern

"conveniently forgetting that it was the western world, not a Russian soprano soloist, that gave him all the power he has in the first place."

Source please?

You want me to prove that a soprano opera singer didn't give Putin the power he has??

Ahahaha

She means the west who gave putin power you goady shill.

Quite frankly, your entire stance is absolutely fucking moronic and if you can't understand what a boycot is I imagine there's no hope for you.

And of course it is the political climate created by her own government that is to blame for her lack of outsider support. Why should the career of one irrelevant musician matter at all compared to the lives of thousands in Ukraine.

Go to bed.

She has publicly supported him though.
I don’t totally disagree with you but I’m not sure this lady is a particularly positive example for what you’re trying to say.
When public figures like her appear to endorse Putin it increases his credibility.

AIBU to think that people shouldn't lose their livelihoods because of their government?

Which level of government?

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/edinburgh-strip-club-ban-club-owners-and-lap-dancers-win-court-battle-to-overturn-ban-4022722

No, no interest in what happens to Russian musicians who support Putin.

@Anotherparkingthread but our own politicians have enabled Putin, for decades. Going right back to brown and Blair. Their policies and Johnson's and Cameron's are what's got him to where he is internationally. Nothing to do with an opera singer.

If you're going to be puritan at least be consistent.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX struggling to see the connection here, sorry.

Puritanism, and government conspiring to attempt to deprive people of a livelihood.

Oh ok. This thread is about commercial organisations though, breaking contracts with artistes on the basis of their country's foreign policy.

Quite frankly I don't think you're going to find anybody here crying for a putin supporting Russian singer. It's just incredibly poor taste isn't it. I you don't agree with the UK policy start a petition or something. I personally back the policy entirely.

Will this singer use her voice to openly campaign against Putin’s horrific invasion of Ukraine ?

If not, why not ? And if not, why should we support them ?

Why is an employee required to be a political activist for any cause in order to keep their (unrelated) job? Not all Americans support Ukraine, let alone every foreign worker in the country, you seem to be suggesting that it’s okay to fire someone for not loudly declaring the view you feel people ought to hold.

Ironically, that’s a very Putin-esq view of how to treat people.

When Putin was in the mayors office at the opening up of Russia he came upon the opportunity to take a cut on the profits of manipulating the sale of state assets.
This made the oliagarchs rich and in tandem made him rich and powerful at the helm of a state mafia combining his KGB contacts, organised crime, political power and the oliagarchs he enabled.

The Russian mindset permitted this with the ordinary people that had blinkered themselves to self preservation under a communist dictatorship doing the same under an organised criminal dictatorship

In the sense of international politics governments just dealt with another government

In the sense of letting Putin flex his military muscle countries raised objections but did not commit to war to intervene

LOL ordinary Russians haven't benefitted from the City of London being money laundering base camp for the past twenty five years.

This is what sanctions are though. The point is by sanctioning the nation it pisses the people off enough to have a rebellion.

Exactly.

It doesn’t exclude musicians or anyone else

Why do you want Russians to have a rebellion? An unstable Russia is everyone's worst nightmare. You know your lad that's gone to Belarus? There are scores like him who will quite happily fight it out for years to see who comes on top next.

The russian people have a history of rebelling against and overthrowing leaders they don't like. They don't always install the most stable of replacements though, but you can hardly call Russia stable right now. Putin is clearly unwell and leading his country blindly into a larger scale war.

Russia is a mess but it will be much worse if Putin goes and if all the strings he's currently pulling fall into other hands. Not just for Russia but everywhere that Russia is involved in - Azerbaijan vs Armenia for starters, which Russia is just about keeping a lid on, pretty much all the Stans, several west African countries where you've already got shady private/mercenary involvement, not to mention the surge in mercenary neo Nazis across Eastern Europe. Nobody else wants to deal with any of that hence world leaders being quite happy to leave it to Putin.

As for Russians overthrowing leaders they've only done it the once and it did not end well. Maybe there were a few weeks, more than a century ago, where things looked like they might be okay for the ordinary Russian but that's pretty much it.

And all of this is way outside the control of a soprano opera soloist.

Ordinary Russians have never benefited from international financial transactions

Its really nice to know the sanctions are working so effectively. This is great news for everybody (except russia).

This is bollocks. Sanctions tend to be quite targeted.

Current US sanctions against Russia cover military goods, goods with a dual civilian/military use, goods used in the mining sector (because Russia’s mining capacity is a significant factor in its military capacity), and financials blocks on some individuals and organizations with close connections to Putin and the war effort, as well as other blocks on financial institutions linked to efforts to evade sanctions.

It does not include musicians.

I have sympathy for Russians who have not lived in Russia for years (athletes who cannot compete), but this does not seem the case.