Moldova’s interior ministry said musician Goran Bregovic and his band were banned from performing because of his pro-Russian views. They were not allowed to enter Moldova over the weekend.
The Interior Ministry published an explanation on Aug. 21 after the Sarajevo-born star and his band were prevented from attending a Moldovan festival in the town of Orheiul Vechi, where they were scheduled to perform on August 20.
Seven hours before the concert, the organizers of the festival announced on Facebook that Bregovic and his band would not be able to perform “for reasons beyond the control of festival organizers or artists.”
The artists were stopped by border police after arriving at Chisinau’s international airport, organizers said.
The border police said in a statement that they were returned to the country they departed from after „risk analysis” and an exchange with the Information and Security Service (SIS). The statement also said the organizers of the event had been notified in advance about the ban.
The border police statement did not include names, so it was not clear whether Bregovic was among those stopped. He had reportedly sent his band ahead without departing for Chisinau himself, Radio Free Europe reported.
Interior Minister Adrian Efros told journalists that Bregovic was banned from Moldova based on his pro-Russian views and the fact that he supported Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Efros also said that „there were other reasons analyzed within the security structures” but did not elaborate.
Bregovic responded in a statement sent through the organizers of the festival that he was puzzled by the ban but did not mention Russia or the war in Ukraine.
Bregovic, who calls himself nostalgic for the former Yugoslavia, came under scrutiny from Ukrainian authorities after performing in 2015 in Crimea.
He was subsequently banned from performing in Ukraine and banned from a festival in Poland. He has said in response to those bans that he didn’t understand the reasons behind them.
