Will Kobzon sing to the queen?

There is a collection of signatures under the petition not to allow Valery and Joseph Kobzon to Britain

Russian musicians dream of performing in the most prestigious hall of the British capital-Royal Albert Hall. In March 2013, Grigory Leps sang here the song " I will go to live in London ", in May 2014, Boris Grebenshchikov gave an anniversary concert in Albert Hall . On October 21, a concert " Valery and Friends " should take place in the huge hall (5000 seats). “We are talking about this speech as supporting the image of Russia,” said Valeria's husband, producer Joseph Prigozhin.

Among the "friends" who are going to perform with Valeria, her son is Arseny Shulgin, as well as Joseph Kobzon, Stas Piekha, Valery Meladze and the soloist of the Mariinsky Theater Vasily Gerello.

The performance of Oleg Violin was also planned. However, the leader of the Vodoplyasov VOKS group refused to take part in the concert. "When I gave my consent to speak, there was no such tense relationship between Russia and Ukraine. I will not speak in the pro -Russian show, " the musician said. In response, Valeria suggested that the SBU “exerts pressure ” on the violin.

Now, participation in the concert of Joseph Kobzon, and, possibly, Valeria herself, was in question. In any case, the authors of appeal to the British authorities hope for this, believe that the Putin propagandists, who supported aggression against Ukraine, have no place in democratic countries.

For many years, the United States has been denied Joseph Kobzon in an entry visa due to suspicions of crime relations. In July 2014, by the decision of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Edgars Rinkevich Oleg Gazmanov, Iosif Kobzon and Valeria were blacklisted and could not participate in the New Wave contest in Jurmala. Now the UK. One of the initiators of the collection of signatures under the petition to the British authorities living in London a political emigrant and the leader of the movement "Speak louder!" Andrei Sidelnikov answered questions from Radio Liberty.

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Andrey Sidelnikov about the petition against the arrival of Kobzon and Valeria

-I know that you are watching the sale of tickets for a concert in Albert Hall. Do they diverge well?

- One fifth of the hall is already exactly sold, that is, a thousand tickets. It is very difficult to eat a five -thousandth hall. As far as I know, usually when tickets are not sold to the end, they are heard through different communities, people are invited to have a good picture, and they are offered free tickets. In this case, as I understand it, it will be the same, because it is simply impossible to sell such a number of tickets.

- Is there a concert advertising?

- A lot of advertising, the city is literally littered with her. And billboards, and at bus stops, and on buses, and on a taxi ... Even in suburban trains there is advertising, inside the wagons.

- Do the British know Valery at least a little?

- Of course, they do not know Valery. Some time ago, they tried to gain a foothold here, but nothing came of it. I do not presume to judge her work, and in general we do not concern creativity, this is a personal matter for everyone, how to relate to one or another artist. This does not bother us, we began in completely different positions a campaign to refuse Valeria and Kobzon. There will be more than ten different artists at the concert, there Valery Meladze declared, Stas Pieha, a number of other musicians. We have no complaints about them, there are only claims to Valeria and Kobzon due to the fact that they promote the Putin regime, performed and supported the annexation of Crimea, and supported Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Valeria has homophobic statements that she admitted, including on English television. The question is that people who promote the criminal, in our opinion, are the activities of the Russian government are undesirable in Western countries, and we believe that they should be responsible for their actions. You can’t be two -faced: in Russia they say that Western values are bad, wrong, not for Russia, and then come to the west to earn money, relax, buy real estate.

- Who organizes the concert, where did the money come from?

- I know from the media that from the Russian side the concert is organized by producer Valeria Iosif Prigozhin. And what money is used there is difficult to say. He stated on the NTV that hundreds of thousands of pounds were spent on the organization. On the English side there is such a company - Ensemble Productions, it is headed by Olga Balakleets. We have long -standing disagreements about political processes. She states that she is not engaged in any policy, but at the same time, she is probably the only organizers of public events here, which directly works with the United Russia party. In the Russian segment of London, its actions are ambiguously assessed.

- In general, in Russian -speaking London, a political confrontation is felt in recent months?

Joseph Kobzon at a meeting of the State Duma

- Most of all this is noticeable in social networks. Because, as a rule, people who advocate Vladimir Putin’s policy, living here, can organize little, they can only curse on the Internet. How many public events we did, there was no counteraction from this part, there is only dirt on the Internet. We post information about our petition in different Russian -speaking groups in the UK, Facebook, and there are such requirements: To ban, remove ... But I must say that this is mainly not done by Russian citizens who live here, but Russian -speaking from other countries that are in the UK.

- Do you get many responses? Are they mainly supported or outraged?

- Most supports. We are written by people living in other countries who are ready to accept this baton and deal with the issue of closing the entrance to people who promote Putin's regime.

- NTV presented the case in such a way that this is your private initiative, and you have no supporters.

- It is enough to look at the history of our movement and look at the promotions that the “Speaker” movement arranged in the UK and in other countries. Therefore, to say that I am sitting alone, as a singer said in a report on NTV, that two people gathered there - this, of course, is not so. There is a backbone of the movement that develops shares, and the Russian London knows us perfectly. We feel support, and people come to our promotions, we have a page on Facebook, you can just look at like how the support of our movement is growing.

- It is curious that Russian television took your initiative very seriously, NTV begins a report with the fact that the concert is threatened with a breakdown . Is it really so?

The chances that they will be refused at the entrance, even if there are visas, increase every day

- Not only Valery and Kobzon take part in the concert, there are other famous artists. Therefore, there is no talk of canceling the concert. But, of course, the chances that they will be refused at the entrance, even with visas, increase every day. This week we send letters to the Ministry of the Interior, which is engaged in visas. We send a copy of the letter to the Foreign Ministry, and also take the letter to the residence of Prime Minister David Cameron, transfer it to the office. Then everything will depend on the Government of Great Britain. We do not demand, we do not knock with fists, we ask, justify. As soon as we transmit the letter, it will be published on the Internet, it will be possible to get acquainted with it and understand that we do not affect creativity in any way, but ask us to simply refuse to enter these two performers.

- Have you already had preliminary consultations with British officials? Found some response?

- Yes, I had several meetings, meetings are planned this week, we discuss these issues, talk about our position and ask us to help us in the performance of our request.

-In your Facebook, Joseph Prigozhin has been published , which I cannot quote due to non-normative vocabulary. In connection with what did he write?

Andrey Sidelnikov at the London Protest Protest against Russian aggression in Ukraine

- I put up this tweet at home and wrote right away that this is not to me. This was sent to me by the man to whom he expressed this. There, apparently, there was some skirmish on the topic of the concert that was ahead of London. But in relation to me, I must say, Joseph Prigozhin did not allow any steps, no insults, nothing. I think he will not do this. We do not touch him at all in this letter, because he is not the person we want to impose sanctions on. Of course, I understand that he is worried about his wife Valery, and as a producer he organizes this concert, invests his funds. But it is necessary to explain to each person for a very long time that we do not want to ban the concert. In any weather, the concert will take place. And with the participation of Valeria and Kobzon or not , it is already deciding the Government of Great Britain. But there will be a concert, people will hear all the performers who are listed in the posters, perhaps, with the exception of the two indicated ... The concert will take place, so people do not worry. But we will not change our position under any circumstances. We declare that we need to be consistent in their actions, and if they don’t like the West as they tell them about this to the Russian consumer, accordingly, you need to be consistent and not go here.

- It was reported that the concert is part of the program of the Year of Russia in the UK. This is wrong?

- This is a lie. It is enough to go to the page of the "Year of Culture between Russia and Great Britain" and see what events are included in the program and which are not. Every time I catch them for lies in all respects. Is it really impossible to tell the truth? It's easy and pleasant. We act exclusively in legal order, without violating any laws, and in response some dirt, orders, slander ...

- It's funny that they decided to invite Korolev Elizabeth to the concert ...

-This is really a wonderful PR ridge of the producer Joseph Prigozhin. Well, let's see if the queen will come.

Valeria and Joseph Prigozhin

There is a collection of signatures under another appeal . Its addressee is the leadership of the Korean company LG, who elected Valery and Joseph Prigozhin by his advertising faces in Russia. The authors of the petition give links to homophobic statements of new LG advertising faces. “We consider it absolutely unacceptable that large companies encourage any kind of discrimination, humiliation of millions of people and inciting hatred. Public cooperation with people who stained themselves with such shameful views, actually means solidarity with these views.

We urge all Russian LGBT and their allies and friends to declare the boycott of LG, to completely refuse to purchase its products. There are many of us! We were already able to dismiss Okhlobystin from the Euroset.

We demand public apologies from the leadership of LG for the choice of unworthy people with a spoiled reputation as advertising characters. We urge to terminate the advertising contract with the family of singer Valeria, ”the appeal said, which was signed by more than 4,000 people.