“Rotten Russophobia”: director Philip Los was fired from a theater in Estonia for a post about an anti-Russian campaign in the country

Russian and Estonian director Philip Los, who served as artistic director of the Russian Theater in Tallinn for five years, has been fired from his post.

The term of his contract expired at the beginning of September, after which Los was accepted as director.

However, the other day he was removed from this position - the reason was the director's publication in one of the social networks.

In it, Los criticizes the anti-Russian campaign in Estonia, defining it as "rotten, shabby Russophobia."

“Do you know why I, a Russian Jew who has been living in Estonia for only (already?) five years, is so offended and pissed off by all this endless fuss with sanctions against Russians?

When, under peppy toasts about the support of Ukrainian weapons and the victory of Good over Evil, rotten, shabby Russophobia suddenly crawled out of all the cracks, and no one pinches his nose and says loudly: “Fu!”

Good moment, isn't it?

Get even for everything, trample on all the freedoms and rights of the citizens of the Russian Federation, as if we don’t have enough of our problems without that, ”the director wrote.

Los compared the life of Russian citizens in Estonia with the situation of Jews during World War II.

Later, in an interview with the gazeta.fi portal, he noted that the restrictions on the rights of Russians in the country are comparable to the Holocaust, which also began with such “trifles”.

“What will happen to our rights next?

At what line will our zealous neighbors stop?

Once, quite recently, I remember, they just as zealously destroyed Jews in Estonia, ”the director noted.

Shortly after the appearance of the publication, the director was deprived of membership in the Union of Directors and Playwrights of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Internal Affairs called for him to be deprived of his residence permit, one of the country's politicians demanded that the director be deported, and the theater management terminated his employment agreement.

According to the ERR portal, director and current artistic director of the Russian Theater Svetlana Yanchek said that this decision, although not easy, is necessary to protect the reputation of the only Russian theater in the country and is not directed against the director as a private person.

“With his ongoing social media appearances, Philippe Los harms the reputation of the theater and provokes an extremely negative attitude towards the very existence of the Russian theater in Estonia... In the public mind, he is the first person of our theater.

Even prefixing his publications with the phrase “me, as a Jew who came from Russia,” he does not cease to be the artistic director of the only Russian theater in the country, and his statements inevitably correlate with the position of the Russian theater, ”she noted.

The director himself did not expect such a public outcry.

In a conversation with RT, Los refused to comment on the situation, but in an interview with gazeta.fi he said that what he wrote was an impulse that arose after reading a text about the Holocaust.

“What I wrote on Facebook* was an emotional outburst.

On that day, I read a text about the Holocaust in my feed, and the last part of this text was the author's story about his conversation with a very old woman who survived the war as a child and miraculously survived.

The author of that text, tormented by shame and doubt, asked her: “Why didn’t you resist?

There were so many of you."

And she answered: “You know, everything happened somehow gradually.

It all started with simple things.

Here they adopted some kind of law restricting the rights of Jews, or rather, separating the rights of Jews from the rights of Germans.

Then public conversations began that the Jews were to blame for everything.

Of course, it seemed strange that the statements did not meet with any opposition.

Then we were all offered to move to one place.

But no one forbade us to leave the ghetto first.

Then they began to gradually limit.

Then they began to kill, but only those who broke the rules were killed, and those who did not break the rules were not touched.

And then ... This nightmare grew gradually, ”said Elk.

The director admitted that he compared what he read with what is happening in Estonian society and realized that it was necessary to resist political and public pressure on the Russians.

According to him, after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, citizens of the Russian Federation in Estonia acquired the status of “other” people, and their rights are infringed only because of the presence of Russian citizenship.

He cited as an example that he could no longer invite close relatives to his place, since in August new rules were introduced in Estonia restricting the entry of Russians into the country.

“I don’t have a permanent residence permit yet.

Only temporary.

This means that my relatives do not have the right to visit me.

I am not considered by Estonia as a person who has the right to invite my close relative.

Even my mother,” he said.

At the same time, the director is confident in the need for a constructive dialogue.

“The sharpness and harshness of the reaction to my post suggests that I told the truth.

If it were speculation, they would give me a slap on the back of the head and that's it ... But I see: what I said caused a very painful reaction.

This suggests that what both Russians and Estonians are thinking about has been voiced,” he stressed.

As for the dismissal from the theater, the director does not agree with this decision and intends to appeal it in court.

He also said that he planned to work not only with the Russian, but also with other theaters in the country.

In addition, Elk's plans included staging performances in other European countries, as well as teaching at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.

After the start of the special operation, Russian cultural figures began to regularly encounter difficulties when working in European countries.

In March 2022, it became known that Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko would not participate in productions of the Metropolitan Opera because of her refusal to publicly criticize the actions of the Russian government.

This was also the reason for the termination of cooperation between Netrebko and the Bavarian State Opera.

Later, the diva nevertheless returned to the stage and gave a number of performances in different countries.

In addition, in March, several European organizations terminated the cooperation agreement with Valery Gergiev - the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra fired him from the position of chief conductor, and the owners of Carnegie Hall canceled his concerts.

The reason was also the refusal of a public statement of disagreement with the actions of the Russian authorities.

The abolition of Russian culture also affected young performers who applied for participation in international competitions.

So, in April it was reported that the organizing committee of the International Sibelius Violin Competition, which is taking place in Helsinki, decided to refuse participation of the Russians Galia Zharova and Ravil Islyamov, who had previously passed the selection.

At the end of May, three Russian violinists - Lidia Kocharyan, Karolina Averina and Anastasia Pentina - were suspended from participation in the International Rodolfo Lipitzer Violin Competition in Italy.

Competition director Lorenzo Qualli said he followed suit from other similar events, such as piano competitions in Canada and Ireland.

However, later the leadership of the competition reconsidered its decision and the violinists were returned to the composition of the participants in the creative competition.

According to representatives of the governing council that organizes the competition, the decision to refuse the exception was made in accordance with the charter, according to the rules of which representatives of any country can participate in the competition.

At the same time, the Russians were asked to pay the entrance fee.

As a result, the violinists refused to return to the ranks of the competition participants.

Meanwhile, not everyone in Europe supports discrimination against Russian culture.

In May and June, actions against Russophobia were held in different cities of Italy.

The initiators were organizations that do not agree with the policy of the authorities regarding the events in Ukraine.

For example, in Milan there was an action “Say no to the abolition of culture”, in which more than 100 people took part.

Yulia Bazarova, general secretary of the Friends of Great Russia Association, said that the action was attended by many local residents.

In addition, according to her, the singer Al Bano and other Italian cultural figures decided to support the culture of Russia.

* Meta product, activity recognized as extremist, prohibited on the territory of Russia by decision of the Tverskoy Court of Moscow dated 03/21/2022.