Lithuania’s National Opera and Ballet Theatre has stopped showing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Christmas classic “The Nutcracker” in support of Ukraine over the war with Russia. However, a new minister arrived and expressed his fondness of the composer, sparking a debate over culture and politics.

Lithuania is a supporter of Ukraine in its war, and forbade Tchaikovsky and his ballet from being played to show support for Ukraine against its aggressor. Instead, they started showing “Les Millions d’Arlequin,” by Italian composer Riccardo Drigo. However, a new government took control of Lithuania, and new Lithuanian Culture Minister Šarūnas Birutis stated in a radio interview that there was no reason to be “afraid that after watching a Christmas fairy tale we will become pro-Kremlin.”

Opposers of Minister Birutis claim that culture and politics cannot be separated. Arūnas Gelūnas, the director of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art says that Russia is using its culture to make people think it is peaceful, and to draw eyes away from the crimes it has committed. He furthers that Russia has used this culture to create an image of itself as sophisticated and cultured, but that should not distract from the negative things it has done. He says, “Today, when Ukrainians are still being tortured and raped and killed as we speak, I would rather not go to see ‘The Nutcracker’ in the opera or elsewhere.”

However, firm supporters of “The Nutcracker” believe that culture and art should not be contaminated by politics. They explained how Tchaikovsky lived in the nineteenth century and had nothing to do with what Russia has become today. Supporters say that Tchaikovsky belongs to not just Russia, but the entire world.