J-Lo returns to former USSR as Putin drives stars out

Demand among Russians for tickets to concerts abroad has exploded this year, with the Yandex Afisha site reporting a 70-fold increase.

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For countries like Kazakhstan, Armenia or Georgia, it’s a noisy revolution that is bringing new kinds of work, new ideas and a sense of new possibilities opening up, despite the horrors of Putin’s war.

“Before the war in Ukraine, this city mostly hosted washed-up former stars,” said Sergey Chikin, a rock fan from Almaty, Kazakhstan’s commercial capital. “Now people come here from across the former Soviet Union, including from Russia.”

During the high period of globalisation, Moscow was one of the biggest hubs in eastern Europe for live gigs. Western rock stars headed to the Russian capital to cash in on a booming economy and the tastes of a growing middle class.

But the war and the sanctions that followed upended Russia’s relations with the US and Europe, and US President Donald Trump’s efforts to broker a peace deal have yet to bear fruit. Even if an agreement is reached it may be years before tensions subside.

As that old world broke down, Russia’s neighbours stepped in, reaping immediate economic benefits from a spike in tourism and consumer spending, as well as more intangible gains.