Overview
- Frantz received the Friendship Order from President Vladimir Putin during a National Unity Day ceremony at the Kremlin.
- Putin praised Frantz for fostering rapprochement and mutual enrichment between Russian and German cultures.
- Frantz traveled to Moscow despite Western sanctions and, speaking in Russian, called the decoration a great honor.
- The 81-year-old has been criticized for defending Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and for continuing to perform in Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
- German institutions have already distanced themselves from him, including the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, which uninvited him in 2023 and 2024.