© JOHN JAMES / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
In order to starve Vladimir Putin’s regime of anything that might bolster its diplomatic prestige, sanctions have been applied to the cultural as well as the sporting sphere. Loans to and from Russian museums have been stopped; the Bolshoi Ballet’s European summer tour has been cancelled; and two of Russia’s most prominent classical musicians, the conductor Valery Gergiev and the soprano Anna Netrebko, have in effect been blacklisted alongside the oligarchs.