Ye, formerly Kanye West, is going to Russia. What is in it for Putin? (btw, this article was formerly simply titled “ahole”😉)

BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN

Kanye West, also known as Ye, has had ​concerts and performances cancelled in several ⁠European countries the last couple of years following a series ​of antisemitic remarks, including praise for Adolf ​Hitler, even selling T-shirts bearing swastikas and releasing a song titled “Heil Hitler”.

West apologised in January for the remarks, which he attributed to an undiagnosed ​brain injury and an untreated bipolar ​disorder.

Now he is going to Russia.

One wonders how Kanye intends to justify playing two concerts that will, without a shadow of a doubt, benefit Vladimir Putin’s regime - both financially and, perhaps more importantly, as propaganda.

Russian and German media speculate that Kanye will have his strong personal wish fulfilled: to meet Vladimir Putin.

“Russian fans rushed to secure tickets after the shows were announced on Monday. Nearly all of the most expensive tickets, costing upwards of $1,850, were snapped up within hours, according to the concerts’ website,” the Guardian reports. By the evening, all tickets were sold lout for the two concerts, 10th and 11th October.

After having been shunned in Europe, Kanye has found a more receptive audience elsewhere. Recently, in Istanbul he drew 118,000 fans, while 70,000 came to watch him in Tbilisi. Earlier this month, he also performed a sold-out show in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Western media agree that Kanye’s performances in Russia will be the most prominent Western music act to perform in Russia since the invasion.

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The stadium that Kanye will be playing on the 10th and 11th of October is named after Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled energy giant. With a capacity of 70,000, it is the home of the football team Zenit St Petersburg - which is also owned by Gazprom.

Gazprom, of course, has been absolutely central to Putin’s grabbing and holding on to power. And the West has imposed sanctions on the energy giant over its financing of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

According to a Reuters investigation, Gazprom has paid an estimated $210 billion in taxes into the Russian state system since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

So you have an American cultural superstar performing before tens of thousands of people in a stadium carrying the name of one of the central sponsors of Putin’s regime and the invasion of Ukraine, and oppression of Russians.

Not exactly a neutral venue.

And certainly not an apolitical concert.

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In other words, this is not just “Famous US rapper goes to Russia.”

Russia has spent years arguing that Western sanctions and cultural isolation have failed - and a huge American celebrity turning up for two stadium shows is extremely useful to that narrative, a pretty powerful image for Putin’s regime.

It produces exactly the image Russia wants the world to see:

Look. The West has not isolated us. The Americans are still coming.

Several Russian politicians close to Vladimir Putin have already speculated aloud about the two meeting. According to Russian media, Kanye has been looking for such a meeting since 2024, when a possible concert in Russia was first discussed.

In fact, one of the concert organisers say that “meeting with our president, Vladimir Putin, is a longstanding dream of Mr West’s.”

The politician Nikolay Novichkov - has criticised Kanye for his remarks praising Hitler, but suggests that such past silliness can be balanced out of the rapper now expresses “moral support for Russia and the special military operation.”

Another parliamentarian, Yelena Drapeko, who serves on the parliament’s Culture Committee, praised Kanye’s decision to come to Russia, saying she was grateful to him for doing so “against the backdrop of general anti-Russian hysteria” in the West.

You couldn't write the propaganda script much better.

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Oh, and when the two meet, the regime has the media setup ready to blast it out.

Because the people behind Kanye’s Russian concerts are connected to a rather ‘remarkable’ part of Russia’s information ecosystem.

Say Agency, the official organiser of Kanye’s concerts, works in partnership on this project with another event company called Inticket.

And 40% of Inticket is owned by VK or VKontakte - which is essentially Russia’s VK is essentially Russia's Facebook + Instagram + YouTube + messaging + digital-services conglomerate.

And it has very close ties to the Russian state, as it is owned by - surprise-surprise - Gazprom Bank.

While Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, all have become heavily restricted or blocked in Russia, VK has become one of the pillars of the domestic Russian internet ecosystem and works closely with the authorities.

As RFE/RL concluded its investigation of the company:

“VKontakte is no ordinary Russian IT company; it is state-controlled and pursues ideological and intelligence goals.”

So, who exactly has booked Ye/Kanye to come sing and dance for the Russian dictator? And who is going to make sure the pictures of him doing it are seen by the rest of the world?