ASSUSTADOR
NEW-YORK TIMES
By Spencer Bokat-Lindell
Staff Editor, Opinion
In New York City, the challenge of landing a reservation at a coveted restaurant on a weekend night has more or less returned to pre-Omicron levels of difficulty — unless the restaurant in question happens to be known for its blinis and caviar.
As Alyson Krueger reported this week in The Times, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has created a public relations problem for the city’s Russian restaurants. Even though many owners and workers — some of whom are themselves Ukrainian and have ties to victims of the violence — have spoken out against the war, they are getting deluged with cancellations, negative online reviews and harassing emails and phone calls. Some establishments have even been vandalized.
“There is a lot of stigma out there,” Vlada Von Shats, the owner of a Russian piano bar in Midtown, told The Times. Reservations have plunged by 60 percent, she said, and her door was kicked in during the night. “These people don’t realize that we have nothing to do with Putin.”
The backlash against Russian culture is by no means just a New York story. Across the country, liquor stores and supermarkets have pulled Russian vodka from their shelves, in several states under governors’ orders. Netflix has suspended all projects from Russia, and orchestras in Britain and Japan have pulled Tchaikovsky from their programs. And in the realm of international competition, Eurovision, FIFA and the Paralympic Games have all barred Russians from participating in this year’s cont
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