In Thursday’s (7/22) Guardian (London), Sean Michaels reports, “Thailand has cancelled the visa of Russian conductor Mikhail Pletnev, who was accused of child molestation earlier this month. The founder of the Russian National Orchestra, who was a resident of Thailand, now faces deportation even if charges against him are dropped. ‘The Thai immigration bureau has blacklisted [Pletnev] on the grounds that his behaviour is detrimental to Thailand,’ major general Pansak Kasamsan told the Agence France-Presse. Pletnev owns a home in Pattaya, a resort town south-east of Bangkok. … Pletnev has denied the charges and is out on bail. He is permitted to leave the country so long as he renews his bail in a Thai court every 12 days. … Pletnev is one of the most famous figures in Russian classical music. Now 53, he is a member of president Dmitry Medvedev’s advisory council on culture and art, and a friend of former president Mikhail Gorbachev. In 2005, he won a Grammy for his arrangement of Prokofiev’s Cinderella Suite.”
Posted July 22, 2010
