In Moscow, the concert of bard Sergei Nikitin was canceled. Propagandists accused him of financing the Ukrainian Armed Forces

In Moscow, the concert of bard Sergei Nikitin dedicated to his 80th birthday was canceled. The concert was supposed to take place on June 13 at the Moscow Center for Author's Song.

As Sota drew attention , now on the venue’s website in the “Poster” section it says that the concert has been cancelled, purchased tickets can be returned. The reason for the cancellation of the performance was not specified.

Update. A representative of the center, Irina Alekseeva, told the publication Podem that the concert was canceled due to Tatyana Nikitina’s poor health. “The information came from Sergei himself yesterday, I talked to him personally. He said that Tatyana was not feeling well, we had 11 concerts, we were on tour, we were exhausted, I don’t know what. He says that we won’t come in June for sure. If the clouds clear, then maybe we will arrive in July. Before that, I know, their poster for celebrating the anniversary in the Wood Grouse’s Nest was removed. Now Tanya is sick, she doesn’t feel well. They are now in Spain, not in America, where she got sick. They were also very alarmed by this controversy about their names that is going on on the Internet,” Alekseeva said.

In April, Russian propagandists and bloggers launched a campaign against Sergei Nikitin and his wife Tatyana Nikitina. It began after the announcement of the festival “Age of Happiness. To be continued”, scheduled for the second half of May in Montenegro. In addition to bards, writer Dmitry Bykov, poetess Vera Polozkova, singer Manizha, actress Chulpan Khamatova, and musician Boris Grebenshchikov are scheduled to perform at the festival.

In particular, the newspaper “Zavtra” wrote that the bards would perform “at a Russophobic Trans-Ukrainian Sabbath in Montenegro, organized to raise funds for the Nazi evil spirits.” Z-activists called the Nikitins “sponsors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” and also remembered that the bards opposed the war. The pro-government organization “Forty Sorokov” wrote a denunciation to the Ministry of Justice and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation with a request to declare the bards “foreign agents.” At the same time, Ukraine is not mentioned in any way in the program of the “Age of Happiness” festival.

In response, Sergei and Tatyana Nikitin published a statement saying that they “never financed the Armed Forces of Ukraine and did not intend to do so.” “To remove all doubts, we refused to participate in the Age of Happiness festival, which is scheduled to take place at the end of May in Montenegro,” the bards said.

• Sergei and Tatyana Nikitin are the authors and performers of songs for the films “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears”, “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!”, the musical “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, the cartoons “A Big Secret for a Small Company”, “Fairy Tale” about wasted time."