Moscow on Wednesday accused Italy of discrimination and falling for anti-Russian lobbying after a classical music concert featuring pro-Kremlin conductor Valery Gergiev was canceled.

“We strongly condemn such discriminatory attempts at ‘cancel culture,’ carried out by the Italian authorities under the dictate of ideological followers of Bandera,” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement, accusing Rome of caving to pressure from Ukrainian nationalists.

Gergiev, who serves as the head of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater and St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater, was scheduled to conduct an Italian orchestra at the baroque Reggia di Caserta, near Naples, on July 27.

On Monday, however, the Reggia di Caserta canceled the event. The decision came amid mounting criticism from Italian politicians, MEPs, and Ukrainian and anti-Kremlin activists, who condemned Gergiev’s well-documented support for warmongering Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“He is not just a simple conductor, as some continue to claim. He is a figure entirely embedded in the Kremlin’s criminal regime, he’s a pawn of that regime, a sort of personal ambassador of Putin in the world of culture,” European Parliament Vice President Pina Picierno, a member of Italy’s center-left Democratic Party (PD), told POLITICO.

“This guy has no right to have the podium in Europe. He lobbies for the war against Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Deputy Culture Minister Andrii Nadzhos told POLITICO, adding that Kyiv considers Gergiev “guilty” in the conflict.

Since being removed from Milan’s La Scala in 2022 for refusing to publicly distance himself from the Kremlin and denounce Moscow’s war in Ukraine, Gergiev has become a symbol of the increasingly blurred lines between Russia’s artistic heritage and state-sponsored propaganda.

The Reggia di Caserta has not yet announced which performer will replace Gergiev in the concert originally planned for Saturday.