Samir KajosevicPodgoricaBIRNFebruary 16, 202310:48A group of Belarusian musicians has called off a planned concert in Budva, Montenegro, in support of Ukraine, after a pro-Russian gathering protested in front of the venue.
A poster adverttises the Lyapis Trubetskoy concert in Budva, Montenegro. Photo: Facebook/Embassy of Ukraine
Planned concerts by the Belarusian group Lyapis Trubetskoy in the Montenegrin town of Budva were canceled on Wednesday after a pro-Russian group protested in the coastal resort.
The concert in support of Ukraine was scrapped only hours before the performance was due to start, after a group gathered in front of the Palazzo venue in Budva, chanting “Serbs and Russians are brothers forever.”
“The reason for the cancellations was unprecedented political pressure on concert venues related to the group’s civic position. All venues, one after another, refused to hold a concert,” a social media post by the concert grouo said.
The Ukrainian embassy in Montenegro called on the authorities to respond to the incident and ensure the safety of Ukrainians living in the country.
“Any pressure on the owners of the club and on Ukrainian guests, as well as a public display of aggression and incitement of hatred, are absolutely unacceptable and must be categorically condemned. The action that took place in front of the club building can be regarded as a direct threat to the Ukrainian guests of Budva,” the embassy said in a press release.
Montenegrin police said officers were monitoring the club to prevent any further incidents, stressing that the pro-Russian gathering was short and peaceful. Police also pointed out that another concert, in Kotor, was canceled for purely technical reasons.
On February 12, a planned concert by Lyapis Trubetskoy was also canceled in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, after the nationalist movement Dveri called on the authorities to ban it.
“Lyapis frontman Sergey Mikhalok is known as an enemy of Russia and a supporter of the Kyiv Maidan [the protest movement that toppled a pro-Russian government in Ukraine in 2014]. He wrote the song ‘Warriors of Light’, which became the anthem of the coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014,” Dveri said in a press release.
The concerts planned in Montenegro and Serbia are part of the band’s European tour in support of Ukraine. Even though the band is Belarusian, a number of its members, including its ex-leader, Sergey Mikhalok, have been living in Kyiv in Ukraine in recent years.
Montenegro is deeply divided over the war in Ukraine. The country’s large ethnic Serbian minority is largely sympathetic to Russia. Those who identify as Montenegrin often feel otherwise.
Despite a shared Orthodox faith, relations between Russia and Montenegro have soured considerably, notably since 2014 when Montenegro – pursuing membership of NATO – joined Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its support for an armed rebellion in eastern Ukraine.
The two fell out further in 2016 when Montenegro accused Russia of sponsoring a failed coup attempt, allegedly engineered to thwart Montenegro’s accession to NATO.
On April 8, Montenegro confirmed the decision to join European Union sanctions on Russia, while on March 7 Moscow added Montenegro to a list of enemy states.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
