In her own way, Claudia Roth answered the question that artists and cultural managers are currently dealing with in this country like no other: cultural institutions in Germany should show more art from Ukraine, but also from Russia and Belarus.

And with her typical pathos, the Minister of State for Culture added: "If we feel and see the stories and images, the sounds and dreams of the other nations, then we will understand better that we all have the same goal." As there would be: peaceful coexistence and democratic self-determination.

The - we want to kindly assume - played naivety is as breathtaking as the silence on the crucial point is sobering.

Roth does not respond to the question of how to deal with Russian artists who have sought close contact with Putin;

When Bayerischer Rundfunk asked her on Monday about her stance on the city of Munich's ultimatum to the conductor Valery Gergiev, she replied with the vague admission that she too would like him to commit to democracy and that he regrets what is happening in Ukraine happen.

In a democracy, there is no need for a line to be specified by the top cultural politician.

Rather, it is up to institutions, artists and the public to develop an attitude for themselves.

At the institutional level, suspending relations with the Russian side until further notice, as the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation have done, is correct.

Keeping culture's often-vaunted channels of communication open would amount to legitimizing Putin's actions.

The pianist Lars Vogt, who has close personal and professional ties to Russia, made a similar decision for himself.

He announced that he would no longer perform in Russia as long as the neo-fascist Putin was in power and that he no longer wanted to have anything to do with artists,

On the other hand, no one is calling for a blanket boycott of individual artists from Russia who want to perform in this country, apart from the mobsters and mediators in social networks.

Anything else would be surprising in a country that owes its development over the past 77 years only to the fact that the Allies did not curse it with collective guilt.

There is also much to be said for not embarrassing soul-searching of Russian artists.

Anyone who is still looking for Putin's proximity or even supports the attack on Ukraine is out;

you can't look into everyone else's heart.

And it should be checked carefully who demands courage in front of dictator thrones that you have never had to muster yourself.