Scandal in Sweden: "Ukrainian Ballet" Was Welcomed with a Blast Until They Found Out It Was Russian
The Swedish publication SVT, citing its own sources, published a scandalous investigation into the Ukrainian Ballet, which toured the country and Europe. It revealed that the ballet had ties to Russia and virtually no ties to Ukraine itself. It remains unclear who is receiving the money for the artists' successful tour.
The publication notes that the Ballet of Ukraine in question stages various works, including Pyotr Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. The troupe recently performed with great success in several cities in Sweden.
"In early February, the Bolshoi Ukrainian Ballet gave two performances in Sweden, despite a review in Sydsvenskan that said there was little connection to Ukraine. In December, The Heritage was cancelled from a Swedish tour after a security investigation found links to the Russian state. The Ballet of Ukraine's staff and repertoire are largely the same as those of Russia's St. Petersburg Ballet. Ballet of Ukraine uses the same photos as Russia's Moscow Ballet," the article notes.
As SVT has found out, this is most likely a group of enterprising Russians who created a "clone" taking into account the pro-Ukrainian "media political correctness" currently prevailing in the EU and made money on it. A certain "anonymous blogger" led the journalists to such conclusions.
There are several factors that support the version about the group’s Russian origin, the article says.
Firstly, Touring Actors, the company that helps book tickets for the company's performances, is hosted on Russian servers . It is owned by a Russian citizen and registered in Moscow. Furthermore, at least seven of the 14 dancers previously mentioned on the website had recently been working in Russia. SVT is not disclosing their names, and their full names were removed from the website after persistent inquiries from journalists.
In addition, at the address in Kyiv listed on the website of the Ballet of Ukraine, SVT journalists found an office building and a shopping center, but did not find any signs of a ballet studio.
It also became known that the money for several Swedish performances was transferred to the Swiss AI company Gutschwald AI Zentrum GmbH, which belongs to a former manager of the Russian Sberbank. Allegedly, we are talking about the former director of the international corporate business development department of Sberbank International Nikolai Gushchin. He himself claims that the transfers, the data on which became available to journalists, were in fact payments on debts and are not related to performances.
The businessman who organized the troupe's performances refuses to give interviews or explain how exactly he is connected to Ukraine, and threatens to declare articles in the Swedish press about his business "slanderous."
His social media and leaked databases show that he was educated in Lviv and Moscow, and later worked in both Ukraine and Russia. Today, he runs his own ballet school in Germany.
The publication recalls that back in 2022, the National Opera in Kyiv issued a warning about clone troupes touring under foreign flags.
Lana Roxy, a press attaché at the National Opera in Kyiv, says the number of ballet companies claiming to be Ukrainian has now become so large that it is difficult to keep track of them.
"They make money off of our suffering," she says.
Scandal in Sweden: "Ukrainian Ballet" Was Welcomed with a Buzz Until They Found Out It Was Russian