Ukraine to ban music by some Russians in media and public spaces

BBC:

Ukraine’s parliament has voted in favour of banning some Russian music in media and public spaces.

The ban will not apply to all Russian music, but rather relates to music created or performed by those who are or were Russian citizens after 1991.

Artists who have condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine can apply for an exemption from the ban.

The import of books from Russia and Belarus will also be prohibited under the legislation.

The document says the ban will „minimise the risks of possible hostile propaganda through music in Ukraine and will increase the volume of national music products in the cultural space,“ BBC Monitoring reports.

The ban will apply to musicians who have or had Russian citizenship at any time after 1991 – the year Ukraine declared independence – except for those who are Ukrainian citizens or were so at the time of their death.

In a parallel bill to that affecting music, books imported from Russia, Belarus and occupied Ukrainian territories will also banned, as well as material in Russian imported from other countries.

This law will ban the publishing and distributing of books written by Russian citizens (with similar exemptions to those for music) though this will not apply to books already published in Ukraine.

In addition, translations of books will only be published in Ukrainian, official EU languages or indigenous Ukrainian languages.

This means Ukrainians will not be able to import and read Ludmila Ulitskaya’s Sonechka or Swetlana Alexijewitsch’s Zinkjungen which I read recently. Ukraine has outlawed the publication of books in Catalan, Mandarin, Cantonese.

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