The famous singer and composer Andrey Makarevich is among the well-known figures from various industries acting against the annexation of Crimea, who literally after being subjected to persecution moved to New Zealand. He was even accused of state treason, and the Russian State Duma intends to deprive the artist of the state awards. As said by singer and songwriter Vahan Artsruni, the situation is quite typical of the empire like Russian. “Russians do not accept an independent opinion so easily, which differs from the opinion by the majority, moreover, they do not forgive a clear moral stance. In fact, Makarevich is not the only example, a list of huge number of people is published, whom, like in 1937, are called traitors of the nation. As I have already mentioned, the situation is typical for the new Russian empire, it has adopted quite many things from the Tsarist Russia. Russian people are very polarized, the intelligentsia is in one place and the honest intelligentsia is totally in a different place, they also have the so-called nationalist intelligentsia. Even the fact that Makarevich has state awards, is People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, it does not play any role, if a person has his viewpoint that is unforgivable for his nation. Once, the same kind of treatment was applied against Chernyshevsky or Dostoevsky. In short, the Russian people are not privy to true things,” opines the artist.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
