The European Union approved the 7th package of anti-Russian sanctions on July 21, TASS reports. The Russkiy Mir Foundation is included in the sanctions list. Vyacheslav Nikonov, First Deputy Head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, the Head of the board of the Russkiy Mir Foundation, commented on this decision.
“I must mention that this 7th package also includes concessions in some fields, exceptions were made for aircraft parts and foodstuff. However, in many cases the sanctions got tougher. These sanctions are pushing the limits.
There are a lot of personal sanctions in the 7th package. The State Duma deputies are already under all European sanctions, and not only under European ones. Now the sanctions are being imposed on our cultural figures. For example, our famous actors Bezrukov, Mashkov are in the list now.
Perhaps, for the first time the sanctions are imposed against such important cultural institution as the Russkiy Mir Foundation, which I chair. I can’t say the Foundation was not under pressure before this decision. But that in itself it is a precedent. Yes, they are discriminating agaisnt all aspects of our culture, trying to ban Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky and so on. But this is the different case. The Russkiy Mir, which promotes the Russian language and literature, is not involved in politics. Why it is in the sanctions list?"
Vyacheslav Nikonov invited State Duma deputies to discuss whether it is worth adopting a similar law as a response, imposing sanctions on the cultural institutions of Western countries operating in Russia, such the Goethe Institute, the Cervantes Institute, the Dante Institute and others.
It’s worth mentioning that the 7th list of sanctions comprises the ban on the Russian gold imports and jewelry, expanding the list of dual-use goods prohibited for import, as well as blacklisting 55 organizations and individuals. In addition, the package extends the current sanctions for six months, until the end of January 2023.
Russkiy Mir
