Should Cultural Institutions Enter the War Against Russia?

Soprano Anna Netrebko has been booted out at the Metropolitan Opera for refusing to disavow her support for Vladimir Putin. Valery Gergiev has been dismissed as head of the Munich Philharmonic for the same reason. The cultural world must play its score in the concert of protests against the invasion by keeping Russian institutions and the dictator’s allies at arm’s length. Nevertheless, forcing an artist to take a public position that he cannot or will not take seems questionable. When closing the Russian pavilion in Venice, Raimundas…