While I agree with the main point of your article, this point is really not “on point” as it were. Yes, Putin is acting without the support of the Russian people, but only because he doesn’t need their support. Nonetheless, the majority of Russian people actually do support the war in Ukraine right now, according to many sources inside Russia. This aligns with my direct experiences having worked hard over the last couple of weeks on Google and Russian social media to communicate truthful news to Russian people. (I speak Russian.)

More importantly, however, applying pressure to the Russian government by sanctioning economic and cultural activities sponsored by Russia will necessarily involve Russian people experiencing some pain. There isn’t any way to sanction the Russian state without sanctioning the Russian people.

That said, I wholeheartedly agree with your main thrust about Tchaikovsky and Dostoyevsky.

In fact, just as the whole Welsh thing was going down, the Paris Opera was helping sponsor Ukrainian musicians and dancers stranded in France by the outbreak of war while performing works by Tchaikovsky. Rather than banning performances, they sponsored more performances in order to help the artists.

This is much more of an appropriate response. We shouldn’t be reviling Russian culture. We should however be pressuring Russia as strongly as we can.