Controversial pro-Kremlin
concert pianist Valentina Lisitsa has criticized KLM Royal Dutch Airlines on social
media following the company’s decision to remove her music from its in-flight
entertainment program.
The airline started removing
the music on Aug. 27 after it received a complaint from a Ukrainian passenger
who said she was offended by the pianist’s music being on the program.
Lisitsa, in turn, has on
Twitter publicly threatened legal action against the Dutch airlines. She also
mocked KLM, saying it should also remove the controversial movie “American
Sniper” as it “also offends certain groups like Muslims.”
Lisitsa, who is Ukrainian born
but strongly pro-Russian, said she was stunned that the airline hadn’t reached
out to her, but instead removed her music from their in-flight entertainment
program because, she said, of a complaint from just one customer.
Since the beginning of
Russia’s war against Ukraine in February 2014, Lisitsa has echoed Russian
propaganda on social media, labeling the Ukrainian government as “Nazis”
and calling the mass public protests that ousted former Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovych last year a “coup.”
Apart from voicing her for support
for Russian-separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, she has also visited Russian-occupied
parts of Donbas illegally, even giving a concert there in June. Her visit to
Russian-occupied Donetsk raised ire on social media, with many pro-Ukrainian
groups calling for a boycott of her music.
The passenger who complained
to KLM belonged to one such action group, and uses the pseudonym “Inna
Thorn.” Her real name is Inna Platonova.
In a blog published on the Euromaidan website,
Platonova said Lisitsa and her pro-Russian supporters are now “performing
a character assassination” on her, and even issuing death threats. She
said she had
taken the pseudonym Thorn on Facebook after the start of Russia’s
aggression in Ukraine, when she started to receive threats of violence from
Russian trolls and Kremlin sympathizers on social media.
In a press statement released by KLM on Aug. 28, the
airline said it was removing Lisitsa’s music because she had allegedly praised
the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17. “We have been informed that
Lisitsa has shown sympathy with the downing of MH17,” the press statement
says.
About 68 percent of all the 298 passengers killed on
the flight were Dutch nationals.
However, Lisitsa has on
Twitter denied what she said were “false accusations,” and has called
for a public apology from the Dutch airline. Platonova, however, said that Lisitsa
indirectly supported the downing of MH17 because of her continuing support of
the Russian-separatist forces in east Ukraine. A great deal of evidence has
come to light since the downing of the aircraft that it was destroyed by a
powerful Buk anti-aircraft missile either supplied to the separatists or
operated by a Russian crew on their behalf. However, a Dutch Safety Board
official report on the crash is not expected to be released until mid-October.
Gedi Schrijver, press officer
at KLM, said earlier that “KLM cannot accept any influential person who
supports the downing of MH17, as the airline is still mourning the 298 lives
that were lost that day.”
However, while agreeing that showing
sympathy with Russian-separatists in eastern Ukraine is not the same as showing
support for a terrorist attack on a plane that killed 298 innocent civilians,
Schrijver said the decision at KLM still stands.
“Our policy is simple: if
a customer finds something offensive, than we investigate the matter and take
action. That’s what we’ve done in this case,” the spokeswoman said.
The KLM spokeswoman would not
comment on Lisitsa’s tweets regarding the airline’s choice to screen movies
like “American Sniper”.
“It’s irrelevant to this
matter, and we haven’t received many complaints anyway,” Schrijver said.
This is not the first time Lisitsa’s
controversial views about the situation in Ukraine have led to scandal. The
pianist, who rose to fame after uploading her classical piano music on YouTube,
had performances with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in Canada canceled after
members of Canada’s 1.2 million Ukrainian community complained about some of
her comments.
Canadian-Ukrainians were
particularly upset at Lisitsa’s repeated description of the Ukrainian
government as “Nazis,” and her claim that ”
in
a new European Ukraine, the camps will give the subhumans (ethnic Russians)
condemned to gas chambers an opportunity to offset their carbon footprint
.”
However, Lisitsa has said on
Twitter that her comments were only satirical.
“You might find some of (my tweets)
offensive,” she wrote, “(but) satire and hyperbole are the best literary tools
to combat lies.”
Kyiv Post writer Stefan Huijboom can be reached at [email protected].
