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Mikhail Piotrovsky, the State Hermitage Museum director who expressed vocal help for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine final yr, has given a brand new interview describing warfare as “a method of cultural trade” that may be mutually enriching for cultures in battle.
Chatting with Rossiiskaya Gazeta, an official Russian authorities newspaper, in an interview printed on 2 April, Piotrovsky reiterates his place that “it is necessary for me to be with my nation when it makes a historic alternative”, regardless of the criticism he has acquired “from all sides”.
The veteran museum director, whose educational experience is in Arab and Islamic tradition, acknowledges that historic wars “after all, partially destroyed tradition”, however claims that “on the whole there was a cultural trade”. He provides the instance of the Crusades: “The Muslims discovered from the crusaders to construct highly effective fortresses, and the Christians once more started to wash within the baths, remembering the Roman ones… And so they [Christians] borrowed luxurious items: the final degree of tradition amongst Muslims was then larger than in Europe.”
Piotrovsky is a longtime supporter of Russian president Vladimir Putin, a frequent customer of the Hermitage in St Petersburg. His son, Boris Piotrovksy, can also be concerned in Russian politics as deputy governor of St Petersburg; final yr he visited Russian-occupied Mariupol, the besieged port metropolis in japanese Ukraine.
The elder Piotrovsky now tells Rossiiskaya Gazeta that the warfare helps to strengthen a way of “nationwide self-consciousness” in Ukraine. “See how powerfully the Ukrainian nation is being shaped,” he says.
Putin, who initially promised a fast marketing campaign to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, has shifted his rhetoric to point that Russia will likely be at warfare with the West indefinitely. Piotrovsky says that the “new era” of Russians should perceive that “the earlier consolation now not exists”, not solely attributable to “army operations” but additionally on account of “home challenges”.
In his newest month-to-month column for a St Petersburg newspaper, additionally printed in English on the Hermitage web site, Piotrovsky emphasises the museum’s must strengthen cultural ties with the Center East and China as “we’re altering our vector of consideration, turning away from Europe a bit of”.
He refers to a latest go to to Muscat, Oman, and a lot of new worldwide collaborations underneath dialogue. “We’re conducting negotiations with Oman concerning the restoration of full museum relations,” he writes. “Restorers are coming to us from there to be taught. Collectively we’ll assist to protect Syria’s monuments… We’re in talks with China about taking part in an exhibition concerning the tea ceremony; we’re getting ready Hermitage Days in Belgrade… There are an excellent many nations the place we’re nicely understood.”
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