Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of “trying to write off” his country and, among other arguments, cited attacks on British writer JK Rowling for her views on gender identity.
“Today they are trying to cancel a thousand-year-old country; I am talking regarding progressive discrimination once morest everything related to Russia,” Putin alleged in televised remarks, in which he mentioned Russian music and literature.
Putin compared the current “cancel culture” to the Nazis’ book burnings in the 1930s and also mentioned another, more recent example: that of JK Rowling.
He assured that the British author was “canceled” because “it did not satisfy the demands of gender rights”.
Rowling faced in 2020 a wave of critics for his views on issues related to transgender people.
He then stated that he was concerned regarding a “new trans activism” that he felt was “pressing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender.”
The author responded this Friday to Putin sharing in social networks an article regarding Alexei Navalnythe opposition politician sentenced this week to 9 years in prison in Russia.
“Possibly the best critics of Western cancel culture are not those currently killing civilians for the ‘crime of resisting,’ or imprisoning and poisoning their critics.”
He accompanied his tweet with the hashtag #IStandWithUkraine (“I am with Ukraine”).
Rowling also announced that she will match up to 1 million pounds out of her own pocket (regarding $1.3 million) in donations to a charity she co-founded to help children in Ukraine.
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