American rapper Kanye West is set to perform a concert in Saint Petersburg in October. The singer will take the stage at Gazprom Arena, after several countries in the European Union have banned his entry and cancelled his concerts.
The restrictive measures were applied following several anti-Semitic statements, including praises for Adolf Hitler and the use of Nazi symbolism.
West apologized in January for these actions and claimed that an undiagnosed brain disease and untreated bipolar disorder were to blame, writes hotnews.ro.
If the two concerts in Saint Petersburg will take place, Kanye West will become one of the biggest international stars visiting Russia, after the start of the war in Ukraine. Tickets for the event sold out in less than an hour, and their price ranged between 106 and 1885 dollars.
Gazprom Arena is the stadium of the football club Zenit Saint Petersburg and has a capacity of approximately 70,000 spectators.
Previously, the press wrote about the rapper’s sympathy for Russia and his desire to meet Vladimir Putin. “Have mercy. We are not Moscotscert (ed. note: the oldest state company, organizing events in Moscow). We are the presidential administration. It’s not our business.”, pointed out the Kremlin’s press secretary, Dmitri Peskov, when asked about a possible meeting of the Russian leader with the star.