Photo by Vytenis Budrys. The Lithuanian Council for Culture is still receiving requests from cultural organisations to allow Russian creators and performers to be included in funded projects, despite the position of the members of the Lithuanian Council for Culture, expressed on 25 February this year, stating that Russian creators and performers are not welcome in Lithuania. In response, the members of the Lithuanian Council for Culture are appealing to the Lithuanian cultural community to reiterate its clear and firm position towards the culture of Russia which has started a war in Ukraine.
The members of the Lithuanian Council for Culture perceive Russian culture as a soft power in the Lithuanian space, and therefore they strengthen their previously expressed position and declare that the dissemination of Russian culture should not be financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture while the war is going on. This position is supported by the majority of the meeting of members of the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
The meeting of Council members notes that the situation today has become more complex since the outbreak of the war, and that any relationship with Russia is hard to tolerate, as it has committed and continues to commit war crimes, genocide and other forms of aggression, thus it is no longer acceptable to take a moderate approach towards the cultural expansion of this country. The long years of occupation have accustomed us to it, and we do not always see it as having imperial and colonial aims, neither do we see it as a Russian soft power. Its presence in Lithuanian space must be kept to a minimum.
The members of the Lithuanian Council for Culture point out that it was not on 24 February that Russia became a colonial empire and Putin’s regime became a dictatorship, and that opposition to such a situation should not be seen from the present day, but from a longer time perspective. The Lithuanian Council for Culture intends to continue to support the real opposition to the Russian regime, which has been active at least since the occupation of Crimea in 2014.
However, the Lithuanian Council for Culture is first and foremost guided by the democratic principles of mutual understanding, and its members urge project promoters to reconsider the links between already funded projects and Russian culture, and to make their own decisions about the implementation and possible changes of such projects. The members of the Lithuanian Council for Culture point out that the declared attitude is not directed against concrete Russian creators (living or diseased) and their art but rather concerns the general cultural field that should simply be limited until the war is halted.
However, the meeting of members of the Lithuanian Council for Culture will be more demanding as to the applications submitted now, and the content presenting Russian art will not be funded. The members of the Lithuanian Council for Culture reiterate that this position will be reconsidered as soon as the war started by Russia in Ukraine is over.
