Moscow police officers have attempted to disrupt the concert of pianist Polina Osetinskaya, human rights project OVD-Info reports, citing Elena Felgenhauer who was in the audience.
Photo: SOTAvision
According to the woman, before the event Osetinskaya was approached by police officers and told that the concert would be cancelled “by order of police station Presnensky”. Then the police officers left and the artists began their performance, the concert-goer said.
During the intermission, the police officers returned. They announced an evacuation due to alleged messages about the building being mined. Everyone in the audience was made to go outside. For half an hour, they used a sniffer dog to search the hall, but nothing was found. Afterwards, some of the audience returned to their seats.
After the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the pianist came out in support of Ukraine. “A dark day in our history.. Terror, shame, and disgust. My friends in Ukraine, Kyiv, Odesa, I don’t have any words, I never thought that I would live to see something like this,” she wrote on Instagram. Furthermore, she shared the open letter of the Russian NGOs asking for the end of the war.
Last autumn, her concerts in Saint Petersburg and Irkutsk were cancelled.
“I’ve just received a phone call and been told that I wouldn’t be playing the Beethoven triple concerto in the Philharmonia tomorrow anymore. I think that everyone knows the reason why. Thank you for your reading,” she wrote.
