Access Opera, a partner agency of the American rapper Kanye West, has officially confirmed — via Instagram — that the musician’s purportedly scheduled concerts in Russia will not take place. It recommended that all ticket refund requests be directed to the Say agency.
Say itself said it would release information about the concerts on Wednesday, Sept. 30. “No earlier and no later — be patient,” the agency wrote on its Telegram channel. St. Petersburg’s Gazprom Arena, where West’s concerts had been scheduled for Oct. 10 and 11, last commented on the shows on Sept. 4. At the time, stadium representatives said no concerts by foreign artists were planned at the arena in October.
The day before, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova spoke out against holding the concert, saying Kanye West had been “glorifying Nazism” for several years (on May 8, 2025, the rapper released a music video praising Adolf Hitler). Zakharova also said the organizers had not filed an application for the event with Russia’s Culture Ministry, adding that they were “either simply unprofessional or this is some kind of provocation.”
According to the Kremlin-aligned publication RBC, West’s concerts in Russia had the backing of “several Kremlin officials,” but they did not coordinate the event with local authorities in St. Petersburg or personally with governor Alexander Beglov. City officials then sought clarification from Moscow, and by then questions had arisen among Kremlin officials regarding the musician’s verbal support for Hitler.
Tickets had been expected to cost from 9,000 rubles (just over $100) to 160,000 rubles (close to $1,900). In August, the concert received support from Elena Drapeko, first deputy chair of the State Duma’s Culture Committee. At the time, she said she hoped Kanye had “changed his mind and changed his attitude toward both Hitler and Russia.”
Ye began drawing widespread criticism and condemnation in recent years after he began making antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler. In early 2025, in a series of posts on X, Ye openly called himself a Nazi. He later released a song titled “Heil Hitler” (along with a companion title, “WW3,” which similarly glorified Hitler) and also offered a $20 white T-shirt printed with a swastika and the code "HH-01" for sale on his website (which he also advertised at Super Bowl LIX).
Several of Ye’s European performances were canceled in 2026, including those scheduled in the UK and Poland. Britain blocked West from traveling to the country in April (when he was scheduled to headline London’s Wireless Festival) due to his antisemitic comments and celebration of Nazism. Several weeks later, the Swiss football club Basel also refused to host his concert at its stadium, St. Jakob-Park, saying the event was incompatible with the organization’s values.
West has issued apologies to the Jewish community on several occasions, most recently taking out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal in January 2026. In the ad, he said he had “lost touch with reality” and attributed his behavior to an undiagnosed brain injury from a 2002 car accident, along with untreated bipolar disorder
"I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did, though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people," he added.
