Last week, it emerged that the version of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” to be released in Ukrainian cinemas would be three seconds shorter than the original. Those three seconds would have contained a snippet of a song by Monetochka, a Russian singer who has openly condemned the invasion of Ukraine, has been declared a “foreign agent” and arrested in absentia. She was also nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for launching a charitable project aimed at supporting Ukrainian refugees.

“I couldn’t care less about ‘good Russians’ and their views — my home has been occupied, and I hate everything associated with the Russian Federation. What about our Ukrainian dubbed version? Have they cut or replaced that episode? If they’ve left the song in, I’d rather return my tickets and not ruin my evening,” wrote a Ukrainian user on Threads. She was subsequently contacted by the cinema chain, which informed her that the episode had been cut from the Ukrainian version of the film. 

The problem with such a stance lies not so much in its substance (hating someone solely for a nationality they did not choose is questionable) as in the way it stifles further discussion. Faced with an argument along the lines of “my home has been occupied,” no well-mannered person would attempt to challenge their interlocutor. Expressing sympathy may be the correct course of action from the point of view of etiquette, but it is hardly effective politically, however cold-blooded or cynical that may sound.

The Unbearable Triviality of Canceling a Russian Cartoon

On the day the full-scale invasion began in 2022, the Masterskaya record label announced that........

© The Moscow Times