Putin Criticises Western Cancel Culture, Praises JK Rowling
Russia and Belarus' invasion of Ukraine is still ongoing, and the world has banded together in support of Ukraine with game developers raising money for charity, governments imposing sanctions, and Russian citizens themselves protesting. But Putin believes that the West is "trying to cancel" Russia for its actions.
"Today they are trying to cancel a whole thousand-year culture - our people," Putin said. "They are banning Russian writers and books. They are now trying to cancel our country. I'm talking about the progressive discrimination of everything to do with Russia."
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He highlighted the West's response to JK Rowling, the author behind the Harry Potter books, who has tweeted several transphobic comments online while also supporting those in anti-LGBTQ+ circles. Putin praised her Harry Potter novels, saying that she was cancelled simply "because she didn't satisfy the demands of gender rights."
JK Rowling still has her supporters on Twitter and is still making money from the Harry Potter franchise, but she also uses her platform to share transphobic essays and comments. One claimed that trans activists are "pushing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender."
Putin believes that the backlash Russia is facing amidst its invasion of Ukraine is similar to that of Rowling's for her online comments, and likened "cancel culture" to when the Nazis burned books in the 1930s.
"We remember the footage when they were burning books," Putin said. "It's impossible to imagine such a thing in our country and we are insured against this thanks to our culture. And it's inseparable for us from our motherland, from Russia, where
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