Serbian Filmmaker Kusturica to Visit Crimea Despite Warnings

Serbian film director, actor and musician Emir Kusturica and his The No Smoking Orchestra perform during their concert on the Heroes Square in Budapest, Hungary, 15 June 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE/Balazs Mohai

Acclaimed Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica will perform with his orchestra on August 22 in Russian-annexed Crimea, the artist told Russian news agency Tass on Tuesday, despite threats of sanctions.

"I always do what I think is right," Kusturica told TASS, adding that he is "not frightened in any way".

According to the Russian news agency's report, concert organisers said that Kusturica would perform in the resort city of Yalta on Crimea's south coast to promote the band's new album, Corps Diplomatique, released in March.

The Ukrainian embassy in Belgrade has previously warned Kusturica of the possible repercussions of such a visit, sending him an open letter in July 2017 stating that anyone who breaches the country's Law on Temporarily Occupied Territories by visiting Crimea will be prosecuted.

"One of the punishments for a breach of the law is a ban on entering Ukrainian territory for a five-year period," the embassy said in the letter.

Despite the warning, Kusturica went ahead with his concert on July 23 that year, also performing in Yalta with his band, No Smoking Orchestra. 

Ahead of the 2017 concert, he stated that the unification of Crimea and Russia was a "natural, organic process" and called on citizens of Crimea to develop the peninsula as a "part of great Russia".

Russia moved to annex Crimea in 2014, after a disputed referendum in which people voted that the Ukrainian peninsula should join Russia.

Both Ukraine and the West regard the referendum as illegal, and the annexation as Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory.

Read more:

Ukraine Threatens Kusturica with Ban over Crimea Visit

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