U.S. musicians should be boycotted, Party of Regions member says

Andriy Pinchuk, a member of the Party of Regions faction of the Ukrainian parliament, has said musicians from the U.S. group the Bloodhound Gang, who desecrated the Ukrainian and Russian flags during a concert in Odesa, should be held responsible for their actions.

“I am very calm and tolerant of modern art and its attempts to expand the framework of the traditional outlook on things. However, some limits should never be crossed. The dirty prank of the U.S. punk musicians from the group the Bloodhound Gang, who desecrated the Ukrainian and Russian flags during their concert in Odesa, falls into this category. I will not give the details of their perverted pranks. However, they should not be ignored. Otherwise every third-rate foreign guest actor will consider it his duty to do better than his predecessors and mock our national symbols,” the press service for the Party of Regions quoted Pinchik as saying on Monday.

Pinchuk said he is not calling for censorship.

“However, I believe we should all take some steps together. The police have a duty to investigate the facts stated in the press according to all strictness of the law and probably issue an international search warrant for the suspects. The Odesa club that invited the U.S. loafers and failed to control their wild fantasies should apologize for them. The U.S. musicians should be boycotted. People should delete their music from their players and music radio stations should remove their music from their play lists,” the parliamentarian said.

“Probably, the burning of a U.S. flag in front of the White House has become a commonplace event for Americans, and people are not punished for such things there. However, in our country no one has a right to desecrate symbols of Ukraine and insult citizens’ patriotic feelings,” the parliamentarian said.