Putin compared Russia to JK Rowling and said that the West is canceling his country as it did with the Harry Potter writer

Vladimir Putin accused the West of trying to cancel Russia in the same way that it canceled JK Rowling, the writer of the Harry Potter series, in the midst of a tirade justifying her invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian leader, who has been hit hard by economic sanctions promoted by Western powers and supported by large companies around the world, said that the author who created the world of the paid child had also been attacked by Western political creativity, if any, for not “meeting the demands of gender rights”.

He then compared Rowling's plight to that of his country, as he accused the West of “progressive discrimination in everything that has to do with Russia.”

“They canceled JK Rowling, the author of children's books,” she said. “Her books are published all over the world, all because she didn't meet the demands of gender rights.”

“They are trying to cancel our country. I am referring to the progressive discrimination of everything that has to do with Russia,” Putin said.

The United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom have hit Russia with sanctions in the wake of Putin's attack on Ukraine, cutting it out of banking and trading systems, while Western brands withdraw from the country leaving their economy severely hit.

But Putin was particularly angry at the decision of some Western institutions to withdraw works by Russian artists, authors and composers in response to the war.

He accused the institutions of trying to cancel people like Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Rachmaninov, along with Dostoyevsky.

“Today they are trying to cancel an entire millennial culture, our people,” Putin said at a televised meeting with cultural personalities.

“In this way they are banning Russian writers and books,” he added.

Earlier this month, the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra removed Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, which includes a barrage of cannons, from its upcoming performances in reaction to the war in Ukraine.

A university in Milan, Italy, had also announced that it was teaching a course on Dostoevsky in the midst of the conflict, which was canceled after receiving strong criticism.

Putin accused the West of having experience on the issue of historical erasure, saying that Hollywood has long ignored the contribution of the Red Army to winning World War II and instead focused only on American victories.

And then he tried to link today's culture of cancellation with the Nazi book burning of the 1930s, saying that such things would never happen in Russia.

“It is impossible to imagine such a thing in our country and we are assured thanks to our culture, and it is inseparable from us, from our homeland, from Russia where there is no place for intolerance,” he stated emphatically.

However, the Russian leader himself has been vehement in censoring any use of the word “war” to refer to the situation in Ukraine by threatening 15 years in prison to those who dare to give that name to what official language says is a “special military intervention”.

“They are participating in canceling culture, including removing Tchaikovsky from the cartels,” Putin insisted addressing cultural leaders.

“Russian writers and books are canceled. The last program to cancel world literature was made 90 years ago by the Nazis, we remember that filming when they burned books,” he added.

Putin's rhetoric insists on portraying Russia as a victim of systematic attacks by the West in an openly hostile international setting in which the country has no choice but to defend itself.

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