Ukrainian woman disqualified from festival in Italy for bold protest against Russian jury: theater's clumsy excuses

Ukrainian artist Anna Petrenko took to the stage of the International Salieri Circus Award in the province of Verona, Italy, and protested against one of the jury members. As it turned out, this year's organizers invited the son of Soviet actor Yuriy Nikulin, director of the Moscow State Circus, Maxim Nikulin, who supports the Kremlin's policies and the war in Ukraine, to the judging panel. Due to the Ukrainian woman's actions, she was disqualified from the competition.

Petrenko shared her experience on Instagram. The artist took the stage wrapped in a blue and yellow flag and holding posters: one read "Nikulin supports the invasion of Ukraine" in English, the other depicted a Russian in the company of presumably occupiers in military uniform. Anna went down to the audience and handed out the sheets to the audience.

Subsequently, the head of the festival , Antonio Giarola, came out to the public and apologized to the audience. He stated that he did not know about the intentions of the Ukrainian artist and was not involved in her actions. After that, Giarola disqualified Petrenko from the competition.

On social media, Anna noted: "The Moscow State Circus, run by Nikulin, provides benefits for Russian soldiers who took part in hostilities against Ukraine, as well as their children. Moreover, brigades of propaganda artists perform for Russian servicemen. According to Petrenko, the Russian himself does not hide his assistance to the occupiers and supports the Russian authorities.

"I didn't know that for the first time since the festival was founded, a representative of the aggressor country, Russia, would be invited to the jury," the Ukrainian woman said in her post. "Through my speech, I express my dissatisfaction and call this decision of the organizers an attempt to rehabilitate the image of Russia, the aggressor in the war against Ukraine.

According to the Italian edition of Corriere del Veneto, the representatives of the International Salieri Circus Award did not hesitate to explain that they wanted the festival to become a symbol of unity. Giarola noted that this year the organizers opened their doors to Russian cultural figures, as "other cultural and artistic organizations have done."

"We received 630 applications from all over the world, among which we selected only 22 from 20 countries: from Japan to Thailand, from Mexico to Canada, as well as from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. We have 11 Ukrainians and three Russians in the poster," the competition director justified, "And as for the presence of a judge, I can admit that before inviting him, I asked two other well-known figures in the circus sector from Ukraine, who, however, refused.

Giarola emphasized that Nikulin allegedly "lives in Paris and has never taken sides politically." The Russian didn't even want to respond to Petrenko's gesture precisely in order not to stir up controversy, Antonio said. The head of the festival added that he feels "cheated" because Anna could have simply refused to participate instead of "making a fuss in a place where political flags have no value."

Earlier, OBOZ.UA wrote about how Ukrainian stage director German Nenov accused Junior Eurovision of using his idea for the concept of the 2024 show: "Stupid plagiarism".

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