Putin says Russia and JK Rowling are being ‘cancelled’
"They are now trying to cancel our country," Vladimir Putin said in a speech on
Words: Alastair James; pictures:
Vladimir Putin has said Russia and J.K. Rowling have both been “cancelled” in his latest speech.
In footage broadcast on Friday (25 March) the Russian leader, 69, bemoaned how Western countries were doing what he says people had done to the Harry Potter author.
JK Rowling has received strong criticism in recent years over her views on sex and gender.
“They cancelled Joanne Rowling recently”
In his speech Putin, who likened ‘cancel culture’ to the Nazis burning books said the West “cynically” cancelled the truth over things such as who won the Second World War and dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Putin said that Hollywood forgot the involvement of the Russian army in defeating the Nazis.
He then goes on to say: “They cancelled Joanne Rowling recently, the children’s author. Her books are published all over the world. Just because she didn’t satisfy the demands of gender rights.”
“It’s impossible to imagine such a thing in our country”
President Vladimir Putin uses J K Rowling as an example of Western cynicism and “cancel culture”, which he says is currently being aimed at Russia.
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— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 25, 2022
He added that there was a trend unfolding in Western states of “progressive discrimination of everything to do with Russia” before bravely claiming that “cultural diversity is the pride of our society.”
Russia currently has a law in place that effectively bans positive representation of LGBTQ life to minors. It was introduced in 2013 and is similar to a law introduced in Hungary last year.
It is also thought that Russia has compiled a ‘kill list’ of dissidents it plans to target as part of its invasion of Ukraine, which includes LGBTQ people.
Bathsheba Nell Crocker, the US representative to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet in February.
It said Russia will “likely target those who oppose Russian actions, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons.”
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