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The incident highlighted the concern among
Moscow's Central Asian partners about its military campaign in
Ukraine, a fellow former Soviet republic.
Dancer Sergei Polunin said in an Instagram video he had
performed a dance - in military uniform - for fallen Russian
soldiers to a song whose lyrics include lines such "We will
rise, as long as God is with us and the truth is ours".
The song, "Let Us Rise", was released on Feb. 23, Russia's Army
Day - the day before Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
After the performance, Polunin said, officials of Uzbekistan's
Culture and Arts Development Foundation - an Uzbek state agency
overseeing arts - rudely reprimanded him for it. Polunin said he
wanted Russian diplomats to stand up for him.
"We must not cave in to this, we must not allow them to do this
to Russian artists and Russian culture," he said.
Uzbekistan's Gazeta.uz news website, however, quoted the
foundation as saying its officials were polite and pointed out
that Polunin was supposed to stick to the programme, which it
said was the song "Take Me to Church" by Irish musician Hozier.
Despite having close ties with Russia, Uzbekistan and its
neighbour Kazakhstan have refused to support what Moscow calls a
"special military operation" in Ukraine, appealing for a
peaceful settlement of the conflict.
Over the past week, tens of thousands of Russians have fled to
Central Asia to evade a conscription campaign announced by
Russian President Vladimir Putin amid setbacks on the Ukrainian
battlefields.
(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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