Alla Pugacheva speaks out on leaving Russia
Alla Pugacheva, one of Russia’s most prominent singers, has given her first major interview since leaving the country to journalist Ekaterina Gordeeva.
In the three-and-a-half-hour discussion, Ms. Pugacheva spoke at length about her departure from Russia shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine and her attitude towards the ongoing events.
Pugacheva and her husband, Maksim Galkin, left Russia together. She revealed that she even asked authorities to declare her a "foreign agent," just as her husband had been.
The singer, who in July 2024 commented on the bombing of the Ohmatdet children's hospital in Kyiv by writing, "God is patient, but everything has a limit," described the interview's purpose as "a record for people."
She said her decision to leave was gradual and that she had met with Sergei Kiriyenko, the Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration, who assured her she had no reason to worry. However, just two days later, her husband was declared a "foreign agent" in Russia.
The interview is the first of its length given by Pugacheva since 2017, when she spoke with actor Oleg Menshikov, and before that, with Vladimir Pozner in 2012. According to the BBC's Russian service, those conversations were more focused on her life on and behind the stage.
At the end of the interview, the singer offered a message to her admirers: "Learn to speak the truth. Learn to strive for what is good, beautiful, and bright. Nothing should be destroyed; we must build and create. We must pray for peace, not savour war. And we must not think ill of people or judge them if we don't know them."
Ms. Pugacheva also added: "To pray for peace and never to rejoice in a war where people are dying—this is the simple and only correct truth. Let's choose our conscience. Let's choose peace. Let's preserve what is human in ourselves and around us."
Translation by Iurie Tataru
