Kanye West to perform in Russia despite cultural boycott of country

Kanye West is set to perform in Russia, despite the widespread cultural boycott of the country over its invasion of Ukraine.

READ MORE: Donda 2: Kanye West’s ego is scuppering these half-baked, dashed-off sounding songs Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, there has been a widespread refusal amongst artists to perform in the country.

Now, however, Kanye West has announced plans to play two shows in St Petersburg later this year.

Announced yesterday (Monday August 17), West is set to head to Russia for shows at the Gazprom Arena on October 10 and 11.

Already, tickets have sold out, just hours after going on sale.

According to BBC News , tickets for the 70,000 capacity gig ranged from 9,000 roubles (£78) to 160,000 roubles (£1,394).

In response to the two new tour dates, Russian lawmaker Vitaly Milonov suggests that the rapper should perform traditional Russian songs at the event, instead of his usual setlist.

“Maybe after this he’ll stop his disgusting antics and become a normal person,” he added in a video statement (as per The New York Times ).

Kanye West Will Perform In Russia, Venue Says https://t.co/29fdVbzjab pic.twitter.com/vKvfGWMwa8 — Forbes (@Forbes) August 17, 2026 The tour will come as part of his ongoing, controversial comeback tour, which kicked off at SoFi Stadium in California back in April, and has since seen him play in the Netherlands and Turkey.

For the latter, Ye claimed that he drew 118,000 people to his Instanbul show and break the record for the largest stadium performance .

While shows in Albania , Spain, Portugal and Chicago are still set to go ahead as planned, many of the dates have been cancelled due to the rapper’s history of anti-Semitic comments and use of Nazi imagery .

In April, Wireless Festival cancelled its 2026 event after the UK government blocked Ye from entering the country.

He had been booked to headline all three nights of the London festival.

Ye’s planned shows in Poland and Switzerland were also cancelled amid backlash, while a French date was postponed and an Italian show was pulled over safety concerns .