10 June 2019, 23:38
Culture workers treat honoured artist award to 15-year-old Chechen teenager as nonsense
In Russia, the title of Honoured Artist is awarded after 20 years of creative activity. Assigning the title to a 15-year-old teenager is an unprecedented case, said cultural workers when commenting on the award to Yusup Aliev in Chechnya.
Residents of Chechnya criticized the fact that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov awarded the title of Honoured Artist to Yusup Aliev, a 15-year-old semi-finalist of the music contest "You are super!". Local cultural workers and users of social networks believe such a decision devalues the title of Honoured Artist.
The boy was presented with a quad bike and clothing from the fashion house "Firdaus", headed by a daughter of Ramzan Kadyrov. The Chechen authorities also handed over to Yusup Aliev the keys to a new apartment in Grozny and promised to pay for his further studies.
"This is a unique case when such a title is assigned to such a young singer. Probably, in Chechnya, they simply wanted and assigned the title," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Anatoly Popov, Honoured Culture Worker of the Russian Federation.
Anatoly Popov could not remind such cases, neither in recent years nor in Soviet times. Meanwhile, according to him, the title of Honoured Artist does not provide any benefits.
Alexander Gavrilov, the first deputy head of the Saint Petersburg branch of the Russian Creative Union of Cultural Workers, also notes it is a case unique for Russia when the 15-year-old singer has been awarded the title of Honoured Artist.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 10, 2019 at 07:16 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
