Zelensky sanctions cultural figures

Ukraine just turned an art show into a sanctions fight. On April 10, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree targeting five Russian cultural figures tied to Russia’s return to the 2026 Venice Biennale. (president.gov.ua) The decree says those five figures “justify the aggression” and spread Russian propaganda at international events, and the President’s office linked all of them to Russia’s participation in the 61st Venice Biennale. (president.gov.ua) The five names reported by Ukrainian outlets are Anastasia Karneeva, Mikhail Shvydkoy, Artem Nikolaev, Ilya Tatakov, and Valeria Oliinyk. Ukraine’s sanctions package includes asset freezes, entry bans, limits on economic activity, and a halt to cultural exchanges. (kyivindependent.com) This is not a small museum event. The Venice Biennale is the biggest recurring exhibition in the art world, and the 61st edition opens to the public on May 9, 2026, after a three-day pre-opening in Venice. (labiennale.org) This year’s main exhibition is called In Minor Keys, and it is being carried out from the late curator Koyo Kouoh’s plan after her death in May 2025. Her team said she had already chosen the artists, works, catalogue authors, and exhibition design before she died. (labiennale.org) That means the Biennale was already under unusual pressure before Ukraine acted. A show built around one curator’s final vision is now colliding with a second argument over whether Russia should be allowed back into one of the art world’s most visible national stages. (labiennale.org, kyivpost.com) Russia’s pavilion had effectively disappeared from the 2022 Venice Art Biennale after the selected artists withdrew in protest over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2026, Ukrainian officials say Mikhail Shvydkoy pushed for Russia’s return and publicly framed it as proof that Russian culture had not been isolated. (kyivindependent.com) Ukraine is also tying the art story to the war economy. Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna said Karneeva has links to Rostec, Russia’s state defense conglomerate, and said sanctioned oligarch Leonid Mikhelson funds the Russian pavilion and the Smart Art consultancy around it. (kyivindependent.com) The three other sanctioned participants are musicians, not painters or sculptors, which is part of why this fight looks political before anyone has even seen the pavilion. Ukrainian officials say they support the war, receive Russian state funding, and appear at propaganda events. (kyivindependent.com) So the argument in Venice is no longer just about what hangs on a wall. It is about whether a national pavilion can still be treated as culture-only when the people organizing it are being accused by a wartime government of carrying the state’s message into one of Europe’s most prestigious art venues. (president.gov.ua, labiennale.org)