Overview

• The historic troupe from Cori performed at the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival in Moscow without their traditional yellow-and-blue regalia.
• Group leaders said no authority banned the colors and that they omitted them voluntarily to avoid potential risks during performances outside central Moscow.
• Opposition councillors in Cori condemned the decision as an act of submission and argued that no European country took part, portraying the event as Russian propaganda.
• Fratelli d’Italia MEP Nicola Procaccini criticized the participation as instrumentalization by Putin’s regime to legitimize violence in Ukraine.
• Cori’s municipal government defended the troupe as promoters of peace, as Russian officials used the festival for state messaging with Putin praising a charity program for soldiers’ families and Sergei Lavrov attacking European “cancel culture.”