Kanye West will perform two concerts at St Petersburg's Gazprom Arena on 10 and 11 October, becoming the first major Western music star to play in Russia since the country's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Tickets, priced between 9,000 and 160,000 roubles, sold out within hours of Monday's announcement.
The announcement follows a turbulent European summer tour in which concerts in Britain, France, Italy, Poland and Switzerland were cancelled, while shows in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Turkey and Albania went ahead. Russian lawmaker Svetlana Zhurova said a meeting between West and President Vladimir Putin was possible, while ultranationalist group Sorok Sorokow said it would vet his lyrics for banned content.
West, who began making antisemitic remarks in 2022 and later released Nazi-themed merchandise and a song titled 'Heil Hitler', apologised in a full-page Wall Street Journal advertisement earlier this year. He last visited Russia in 2024.