European Commission says Russian pavilion at Venice Biennale will breach sanctions

The European Commission has warned the Italian government that the operation of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale will constitute a violation of EU sanctions.

Source: Financial Times, citing internal EU letters

Details: "By not respecting EU sanctions, Biennale has called into question its obligation to ensure respect of EU values," the Commission's agency for culture wrote in a letter to the event organisers.

In another letter to the Italian government, the Commission noted that any expenses covered by Russia to enable its delegation of artists to take part in the exhibition will be deemed indirect provision of economic support.

In a statement to the Financial Times, a Commission spokesperson confirmed the existence of the letters and said the Biennale has 30 days to respond.

This year, Russia will reopen its pavilion and take part in the Venice Biennale for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The commissioner of the Russian project is Anastasia Karneyeva, the daughter of Nikolai Volobuyev, a retired general and deputy director of the major defence corporation Rostec.

The opening of the Russian pavilion has drawn a wave of criticism from participants and officials from various countries, including Latvia, Finland and Italy itself.

On 6 May, the preview of the major international exhibition began. The international FEMEN movement and the Russian anti-Putin movement Pussy Riot have already held a protest outside the Russian pavilion. Representatives of the Latvian pavilion have been protesting by walking around the city in T-shirts and scarves reading: "Death in Venice. Russia go home!" The campaign will continue until the end of the Biennale on 22 November.

Posters have also appeared around Venice advertising events that Ukrainian artists could have held had they not been killed by Russia. The project is called Invisible Pavilion.

The Russian pavilion will be open from 6 to 8 May. It will be closed on the official opening day of the Venice Biennale.

In late April, the Italian media outlet Open published correspondence between Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, General Manager Andrea Del Mercato and Russian pavilion commissioner Anastasia Karneyeva in which they discussed schemes for helping Russian artists bypass sanctions, as well as visa issues.

Under the scheme proposed by Karneyeva, Russian artists will perform from 6 to 8 May. The Russian pavilion will be closed to visitors during the official opening, but recordings of the artists' performances will be shown on a screen inside.

Karneyeva also asked the general manager to provide visa support letters for the Russian artists and requested that the Biennale website be updated to state that the Russian pavilion would be returning, as it had previously been listed as the Bolivian pavilion.

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