Proud to be your fan, David.

Russian citizens who don't support the war, enjoy later Pink Floyd, and rely on streaming services to listen to their music, weep.

So far I've seen two cases of Western musicians oicing their support for Ukraine: Floyd/Gilmour and Deep Purple. Plus Lindemann is allegedly helping our refugees in Germany. If anybody knows any other cases, kindly state them here.

Yeah, let's punish the average citizens with sanctions and boycotting the country entertainment and music wise, great logic from folks in reaction to this ukraine/russia situation. Deprive the citizens of russia any distractions they may find useful to cope with their literal dictatorship they live under.

And if you believe that average citizens support the war, I'd love to hear the source of that claim and I hope it isn't from Russia itself. Also keep in mind that russian citizens who speak poorly of Putin do so at extreme risk to their own safety (he's had people poisoned and imprisoned for criticizing him/having dissenting opinions, etc. etc.)

Average citizens suffer more under the current situation than they benefit from it. Where are the benefits? Everything in stores is unaffordable for them now, a lot of companies/entities boycott the country, complete instability there.

It's stupid, it harms the citizens do you really think Putin is going to say that the war is over because you disagree with his actions/won't supply his country with entertainment? What's with these people?

@Eons I could answer your question as a citizen of Ukraine currently residing within the country and having an opportunity to communicate directly with the people from Russia as well as from those parts of Ukraine that are occupied by Russia since 2014 (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk). But I see that you are hysterical and I doubt you'll hear anyone but yourself. I can't impose my will on other Sputnikers, but I think your rants should simply be ignored

Stay strong, LouBreed.

[2]

High Hopes still a perfect song btw

do westernoids seriously believe that the average russian citizen will get poisoned by some fsb agent if they say they don't like putin on their twitter or something

Tell em Lou

He's doing them a favour

As ranty as Eons comment is, there is an element of truth in there. Does Pink Floyd removing its music from Spotify do anything for the war effort other than punish Russian civilians? Does this act as part of a broader boycott of Russian arts and music in general actually hurt efforts to end the war and turn public opinion against Putin?

David Maxim Micic made a thought-provoking post about living through the Kosovo war and witnessing the power that music had to unite people and how depriving people of music and art helps to deprive them of the ability to communicate with each other and spread liberating ideas, especially in a country where free speech is already grievously curtailed. It's worth a read.

https://www.facebook.com/davidmaximmicicmusic/posts/515891403228363

Wonder what Roger Waters would have to say on this :-!

"I am disgusted by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, it is a criminal mistake in my opinion, the act of a gangster"

Roger Waters

@tastepolice
Over 15,000 people have already been jailed during antiwar protests in cities like Moscow and St.Petersburg. it's a stretch for sure but you cannot deny the freedom of speech within Russia is extremely constricted.

Post 1987 Pink Floyd sucks anyway, so they wont lose anything valuable. But i hope they still have all those Pre 1987 vinyls. Thats the good shit.

The whole point of sanctions is designed to punish the average citizens into civil unrest against their rulers.

Almost never works in practice.

BRB moving to russia

Is it not also to ensure the unsustainability of such a war?
Can't continue a war that is looking increasingly elongated without the finances to back it up.
Granted Russia could just turn to China for new trade deals and to supply natural gas but I imagine they wouldn't get nearly the deals they were getting with European countries.

Why not do the entire discog?

@SitarHero I don't think that russians will lose the possibility to listen to Pink Floyd music due to this decision. This is more a symbolic move aimed at expressing disgust with russian aggression than an act of cultural deprivation of russia. And I don't think they are talking of Spotify here, it's about russian streaming services like Yandex Music, owned by russian oligarchs, who are actually directly responsible for the ongoing war.

"And I don't think they are talking of Spotify here, it's about russian streaming services like Yandex Music"

The news reports I've seen mention that it's all streaming services including spotify.

So can Russians just overthrow their government again? That would be cool.

Oh nooooo anything but post-87 Pink Floyd

glad they got out safely

how will putin ever recover after losing the division bell

soooo have they never heard of a vpn or what

loving the political commentary on sputnikmusic,com

The whole point of sanctions is designed to punish the average citizens into civil unrest against their rulers.

i wouldn't even go so far as that, sanctions are more directly designed explicitly to inflict cruelty on a populace, and little more. all this russophobic nonsense is just more proof that liberals love authoritarianism and will gleefully bootlick for fascists so long as they're the ones on our side.

"liberals love authoritarianism"

we been knew

gotta keep saying it until they're forced to learn something

Preach zaru

bro you know what political side Putin is on?

putin is on putin's side. it'd be easier to support the ukrainian military resistance if every time they showed their brave soldiers in action they didn't always have SS and black suns on their mf jackets

"liberals love authoritarianism"

Anyone who loves authoritarianism is inherently not a liberal.

I generally avoid political discussion on here, but hard to let this one go...

I'm against fascism, whoever said fascists happen to be fighting for. To be clear, though, the Azov Battalion and the like is quite a small fraction of the Ukrainian forces, and hard to fault Ukraine too much for tolerating anyone willing to fight when they're facing a vastly larger and very aggressive neighbor country. Beyond that, it's not a surprise that Trump, Bolsonaro, and the rest of the wannabe dictators all over the world are buddy-buddy with Putin, so now that Ukraine has turned into the frontline it's pretty clear to me which side people in favor of democracy should be supporting. Even minus that context, which makes the war relevant on a global scale, it's hard not to sympathize with the underdogs defending their country from blatant imperialism.

Just my thoughts, will leave that here.

Get Low - No, they're far left, big difference.

Good, fuck Russia.

We're not in the age of annexing sovereign nations anymore. Now we do it economically. We set developing nations up for debt they can't possibly ever pay back, and own them.

Take a clue from the US and China. Or Britain before them.

What a funny system the world has.

@zaru
Are you here to tell me that the majority of all Ukrainians are fascists
And that even if there were somehow such a case it would justify more extreme crimes like attempting to destroy Ukraines largest nuclear reactors which would likely irradiate half of Eastern Europe?

I guess they'll just have to order the vinyl

nazi hunters does as nazi hunters does

"Anyone who loves authoritarianism is inherently not a liberal."

Pinochet etc

FWIW, long-time lurker, first time poster here. Hello all.

@SitarHero: “Does this act as part of a broader boycott of Russian arts and music in general actually hurt efforts to end the war and turn public opinion against Putin?”

There are several things this does, IMO… first, it’s an almost symbolic statement on behalf of the band that they do not want to be taking money from an economy of a country that’s engaging in a horrendous war effort; it distances them and in a small sense, adds to the combined Western sanctions. Secondly, it can (in a small sense) make the general public at least question what their government is up to; as the regime is in full control of the media and propaganda re. their Ukrainian onslaught, and actively crushing any “fake news”, fans of historically popular Western bands from Russia (in this case, Pink Floyd), will be at the very least, jarred that their heroes (as musicians have the power to be) are very visibly not in support of the Russian “Nazi liberation effort”, and further question further why their country is being so isolated on the world stage.

It’s minnow piss in an ocean, but that’s mostly as much as anything can amount to.

Our western cultures have become so abysmally dumb and pathetic it's unbelievable.

The truth is that our reaction to the covid-19 thing was beyond undignified and catastrophically irresponsible and that we're all trying to restore some self-image by pointing a finger at a universal bad guy. We need to find someone to clearly designate as "below us" to feel better about ourselves.

And from that cowardly point of view, the truth about what's happening in Ukraine is beside the point... that which is sad that because what's truly happening in Ukraine is important. But it's far more gratifying to virtue signal than to try and understand complicated geopolitical stuff that we do not care about in the first place. And also, we are massivaly lied to on so many levels that it's become a full-time job to get access to something that would remotely resemble the truth.

"It can (in a small sense) make the general public at least question what their government is up to; as the regime is in full control of the media and propaganda re. their Ukrainian onslaught, and actively crushing any “fake news”, fans of historically popular Western bands from Russia (in this case, Pink Floyd), will be at the very least, jarred that their heroes (as musicians have the power to be) are very visibly not in support of the Russian “Nazi liberation effort” and further question why their country is being so isolated on the world stage"

On the other hand since the Russian Govt is in charge of the media they can spin Gilmour's actions in any way they want. Isolating the Russian people also serves to help tighten Putin's hold on them as a captive audience for state propaganda. There's a reason that authoritarian governments like to limit the population's consumption of any art that may be considered subversive, like the Nazis and jazz or the Soviets and rock. Pink Floyd seems to be (jnadvertently) helping them with this.

"Are you here to tell me that the majority of all Ukrainians are fascists"

i'm saying if you want me to think your boys aren't all nazis, you shouldn't keep putting the nazi ones on TV, specifically, and try to tell me they're the good guys. especially since after this is over azov will go back to harassing minorities with the weapons we gave them. i would very rather just not endorse nato/azov/life-ruining sanctions.

“On the other hand since the Russian Govt is in charge of the media they can spin Gilmour's actions in any way they want. Isolating the Russian people also serves to help tighten Putin's hold on them as a captive audience for state propaganda.”

They’re a captive audience for state propaganda anyway (compounded further that they’ve closed off the vast majority of foreign social media, news outlets and the like), and I’m not saying there’s any definitive answer to this, and as I alluded to, most actions are pretty much impotent anyway. In this case, as a band, Pink Floyd have got the binary decision of whether to partake in this or not; their actions will be spun any which way, regardless.

“There's a reason that authoritarian governments like to limit the population's consumption of any art that may be considered subversive, like the Nazis and jazz or the Soviets and rock. Pink Floyd seems to be (jnadvertently) helping them with this.”

Specifically about this, there’s very little I can recall about Floyd’s post 1987 that could be considered remotely subversive (‘Dogs of War’ at most?), it’s mainly pleasant-enough, MoR stuff that’s not going to change much or have any specific message that’d serve anyone’s end.

As it stands ironically, Western media piracy has reportedly been made legal over there as a counter “fuck you” to media company pull-outs, so if that’s the case, there’d be an influx of Western content being consumed by Russian users with government blessing. It’s a mess.

Who listens to post 1987 Pink Floyd?

"As it stands ironically, Western media piracy has reportedly been made legal over there as a counter “fuck you” to media company pull-outs, so if that’s the case, there’d be an influx of Western content being consumed by Russian users with government blessing. It’s a mess."

Thank fuck for incompetence on both sides.

"So can Russians just overthrow their government again? That would be cool"

when did this happen last? the bolsheviks?

fuck yeah, take the music away from the common russian citizen. take their netflix and mcdonalds and coca cola away too because fuck every russian! (not racism)

"The whole point of sanctions is designed to punish the average citizens into civil unrest against their rulers."

a) this shit doesn't work, and b) you want countless thousands of innocent people to die in an uprising against their gov't because they can't eat mcdonald's and drink coca cola? much more likely those citicizens will grow embittered towards everyone and this is how you perpetuate hate and alienation. not to mention all the hard working people who will be out jobs because of this and struggling.

Come to sputnikmusic.com for the 50 White Pony reviews, stay for the enlightening political discussion

Giving ‘White Pony’ a 1.5 could get very political.

fuck white pony

is the internet on fire now?

This is literally just taking away division bell is it not? I don't see this being the line that makes many more Russians hostile.

“fuck white pony

is the internet on fire now?”

Maybe not on fire, but my router is now significantly warmer since you dropped this comment.

happy to help