One unlikely person is coming to J.K. Rowling’s defense: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin argued that Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, and Russia were victims of the West’s “cancel” culture in a televised speech on Friday.
“They are now trying to cancel our country. I’m talking about the progressive discrimination of everything to do with Russia,” Putin said, according to Insider, after noting that public outrage against Rowling was because she “didn’t satisfy the demands of gender rights.”
PUTIN’S INNER CIRCLE CLOSES IN AROUND HIM
Putin went on to compare cancel culture to the burning of books by the Nazis in the 1930s.
“It is impossible to imagine such a thing in our country, and we are insured against this thanks to our culture, and it’s inseparable for us from our motherland, from Russia, where there is no place for ethnic intolerance, where for centuries representatives from dozens of ethnic groups have been living together,” Putin said, as reported by the outlet.
Rowling sought to distance herself from the Russian leader’s remarks on Friday, sharing an article about imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Twitter.
“Critiques of Western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics,” Rowling wrote while expressing her support for Ukraine.
Critiques of Western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics. #IStandWithUkraine https://t.co/aNItgc5aiW
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 25, 2022
The author also called for donations to the children’s charity she founded, Lumos, to provide help to Ukrainian children, saying she will be matching donations up to 1 million euros.
“Like everyone right now, I wake up each morning shocked and dismayed by the horror of the war in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis unfolding in front of our very eyes,” Rowling wrote in a blog post on Friday.
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Rowling has received criticism over the past two years for her comments about transgender people. The author has emphasized that she is opposed to discrimination against transgender people but feels that biological sex is a real concept, tweeting in 2020 that “it isn’t hate to speak the truth.”
Russia is being buried in mounting sanctions by the United States, the European Union, and others, targeting major sectors of the Russian economy as the country continues its march into Ukraine.
