Even before the political scientist and historian Herfried Münkler made the maintenance of the previous world order conditional on the condition that Vladimir Putin be brought before the war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Deutschlandfunk on Monday morning, the Russian pianist Yevgeny Kissin had already made this demand on his Instagram account.
However, encoded.
Without using the words "Russia", "Ukraine" or "Putin", he described a "war of aggression" on the "territory of another state" without any threats emanating from it as a "crime".
And he recalled the trials in Nuremberg after the Second World War and in The Hague after the Yugoslav war.
In an open letter from more than four hundred musicians, the Russian attack on Ukraine is called by its name.
He was "unjustifiable by anything".
Kissin also signed this letter together with the conductor Andrej Borejko and the violinist Ilya Gringolts.
Now that the terms "war," "march," "invasion" have become irritating vocabulary for censorship in Russia, such a letter is particularly courageous.
But you have to keep in mind that the most prominent of its signatories live abroad.
Singer Anna Netrebko shared over the weekend that she needed time to think.
Now she can say: "I am against this war." She wants this war to end, she hopes for that, she prays for that.
Nevertheless, she protests against forcing artists to disclose their political convictions and to insult their home country.
This should remain a free choice.
She is an apolitical person and not a specialist in politics.
Of course, with such a statement she is defending the conductor Valery Gergiev, whose political statements in favor of Putin have been known for years, which has so far prevented anyone in the world from employing him.
Other well-known Russian musicians, violist Yuri Bashmet, violinist Vladimir Spivakov and pianist Denis Matsuev, are among the best-fed beneficiaries of the Putin system.
More than that: Since they all work in a culturally-politically exposed manner, they are personally and financially completely dependent on Putin and his network of money, the military and the secret service.
It's hard to get an opinion from them.
Even Netrebko's formulation that she is not a specialist in politics (as if one had to be one to take a position on this issue) leaves the back door open,
The greater the artists' geographical and financial distance to Putin, the easier it is for them to distance themselves politically.
The greater the dependence on him and the greater the responsibility for other people in Russia, the harder it is for them to condemn this war.
Putin's favoritism for art was and is persistent blackmail.