Vladimir Putin has spoken out about the cancellation that the Western world has made of Russia in response to the attacks that it has been carrying out against Ukraine for more than a month. And he has done it in a very particular way: by mentioning JK Rowling , the author of Harry Potter .

In a television broadcast, the president explained that the Western world is canceling everything that has to do with Russian culture, including books and musical works by great Russian artists such as Dimitri Shostakovich, Sergei Rachmaninov and Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky. In addition, he mentioned that the measure was similar to that suffered by the author JK Rowling due to her position on the transsexual community: “They recently canceled Joanne Rowling, the author whose children’s books are published all over the world, only because it did not meet the demands of gender rights… Now they are trying to cancel our country.”

Putin’s words refer to the statements that the author has made in the past about the LGBT+ community, specifically about transgender people , and that have earned her harsh criticism from her followers and even from actors such as Daniel Radcliffe and Eddie Redmayne .

The author was quick to respond to Putin through a post on her Twitter account: “Criticism of Western cancellation culture should not come from those who currently kill civilians for the crime of resisting, or who imprison and they poison their critics .” The post is accompanied by an image of Alexei Navalny, one of Putin’s main opponents, and a link to a BBC article about his recent arrest. Rowling’s message closes with the hashtag #IStandWithUkraine .

Critiques of Western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics. #IStandWithUkraine https://t.co/aNItgc5aiW

— JK Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 25, 2022