- July 1, 2026
- 8:12 pm
- Israel
“Everything you are forever in love with …”
… and no, he is not Jewish and not a citizen of Israel.
We will not name this musician in this article.
Not because they are unknown. And not because there are rumors behind this story. Everything has long been said aloud — in interviews, in public explanations, in that very manner when a person no longer hides behind music and does not try to appear “apolitical”.
But today the surname is not important.
What is more important is that he himself chose his place in this story.
For this article, we will simply call this musician — “Will and Reason”.
He could have been called otherwise — by his own formula: “for Putin, for the SVO”. But we will not turn these vile words into a second name. There is no need to unnecessarily replicate the slogan used to justify the war.
One could also recall another phrase from his rock biography — “Stand up, overcome fear”.
Only in this story, the question is no longer about fear and not about overcoming it. Either the fear was never overcome, or for a person who publicly supported the war, fear simply does not exist.
Therefore, let it remain “Will and Reason”.
“Will and Reason” is the very musician from the Israeli poster on July 3, 2026, who publicly declares that he is “for Putin, for the SVO”.
And this is where not an investigation begins, but a question to ourselves: how did it happen that in Israel, where people from Ukraine, anti-war emigrants from Russia, repatriates, volunteers, and families for whom the war is not a television picture live, such an artist appears in concert sales as an ordinary musical event?
When music stops being just music
There is an old convenient phrase: “it’s just music”.
It is often brought up at the most inconvenient moments. When an artist is silent about the war. When an artist speaks ambiguously. When an artist hopes to perform on a foreign stage without being accountable for what was said at home. When organizers want to sell tickets but do not want to explain to the audience who exactly they are bringing to the stage.
But in the case of “Will and Reason”, this phrase no longer works.
Because he himself has removed himself from the space of “just music”.
In an interview, he said aloud what many supporters of Putin’s war usually hide behind words like “complex situation”, “not everything is so clear-cut”, “I’m not a politician”.
He said directly:
“My position is unequivocal. I am for Russia, I am for Putin, I am for the SVO”.
After such a phrase, a person closes the door to the convenient legend of an artist outside politics.
Especially since in the same conversation he himself practically dismantles this legend. When it comes to the old formula “music outside politics”, “Will and Reason” responds:
“That can’t be.”
And here he is right — although perhaps not in the sense he would like to be right.
Music indeed does not always live separately from politics, especially when the musician himself publicly says: “I am for Russia, I am for Putin, I am for the SVO”.
He also adds another important phrase:
“A person must have a position, a civic position”.
So, the argument is almost closed. If the musician himself says that a person must have a civic position, then the audience also has the right to evaluate this position. And the organizer is obliged to understand who they are bringing to the stage.
“If the name was Putin”
There is a moment in this interview that sounds like a ready-made metaphor.
For example, we take an interview that “Will and Reason” gave to Sergey Rezanov in the project “Russian in a Good Sense” on June 25, 2024.
It is in this conversation that he publicly talks about Putin, Ukraine, the so-called “SVO”, anti-war artists, and his civic position. In the transcription of the interview, phrases like “I am for Russia, I am for Putin, I am for the SVO”, “I trust Putin”, “I personally saw Nazis”, and “we just kind of cleansed ourselves from them” are heard.
The host reminds that when the name of the new musical story was being discussed, someone might have thought: did they decide to call themselves “Putin”? And then comes a thought that “Will and Reason” does not reject as absurd. On the contrary, he practically confirms his loyalty:
“If the name Putin was being discussed, I would have defended it”.
This is not just a joke about the name.
This is a phrase after which the entire conversation about the stage, songs, and old rock begins to sound different. Because the person is not just talking about politics. He is so connected with Putin that even the hypothetical name “Putin” in a musical context does not seem unacceptable to him.
And after this, he is offered to the audience in Israel as an ordinary concert name.
Old song and new reality
In this story, the play on names sounds especially bitter.
“Will and Reason” — words that could once be perceived as part of a great rock mythology. Energy, resistance, inner core, the right of a person to be themselves.
But what remains of these words when a person publicly says: “I am for Russia, I am for Putin, I am for the SVO”?
What kind of will is this?
What kind of reason is this?
The host asks him about old anti-war songs — “We Don’t Want”, “Will and Reason”, “Games Are Not for Us”. This is an important moment because it is here that one could expect a simple human answer: war is evil, death is evil, murder is evil.
But “Will and Reason” does not leave these songs in a universal anti-war sense.
He reinterprets them through today’s Russian framework of the war against Ukraine.
He says:
“If this is now applied to Ukraine… I personally saw Nazis”.
And adds details about May 9, Khreshchatyk, torches, “SS Galicia” — all that Russian propaganda has used for years as an emotional underpinning to justify the war.
And when it comes to the lines “war seems like a game to them”, he clarifies that today he projects them “unequivocally onto Zelensky” and onto “the North Atlantic bloc, which is fueling this conflict led by America”.
This is no longer music.
This is a political explanation of the war in the language of Russian propaganda.
So old words that could once sound like a protest against war are appropriated by new loyalty. The song seems to remain the same, but the meaning in the author’s mouth is already different. Yesterday it could have been “we don’t want to fight”. Today — “we don’t want to, but they are to blame”.
This is how propaganda works: it does not always rewrite the song. Sometimes it is enough to rewrite the explanation to the song.
Ukraine, which he needs to “return”
In the interview, “Will and Reason” utters a phrase that at first glance may sound almost peaceful:
“I want to live in peace with Ukraine, but Ukraine does not want to”.
But it is precisely in such formulations that the reversal of responsibility works.
The country that was attacked turns into the side supposedly unwilling to make peace. Russia, which started a full-scale war, finds itself in the role of the one who supposedly “had to”. Ukraine must explain itself, Ukraine must justify itself, Ukraine must not be what it became after 2014 and 2022, but what they want to see from the Russian past.
Then another phrase is heard:
“Return to me the Ukraine, the Ukraine that I loved”.
There is an important intonation in it.
This is not a recognition of Ukraine’s right to be itself.
This is a longing for a Ukraine that should have remained convenient for the Russian view. For a Ukraine where one could tour, be friends, remember hospitality, but not recognize its right to finally emerge from under the Russian shadow.
That is why such a phrase for a Ukrainian reader does not sound like love.
It sounds like a demand to return a foreign country to a foreign memory.
“Many of these crazy nationalists”
In the same logic, another phrase sounds.
Speaking about Ukraine, “Will and Reason” says:
“Many of these crazy nationalists”.
Then names and images appear nearby, with which Russian television has been scaring viewers for years: Vyatrovych, Farion, Bandera supporters, nationalists, rewritten history, “crazy” Ukraine.
This is not a random set of words.
This is a ready-made picture of the world in which Ukraine as an independent country almost disappears. Instead, a convenient image for Russian propaganda appears: a country where everything is supposedly taken over by “crazy nationalists”, and therefore Russian aggression begins to look not like aggression, but something like a forced reaction.
But this is how real Ukraine is devalued.
Ukraine, which has the right to its own history.
Ukraine, which has the right to its own language.
Ukraine, which has the right not to be a continuation of Russian imperial memory.
Ukraine, which has the right to resist.
Israel was already in this story
For the Israeli reader, there is another moment that cannot be missed.
“Will and Reason” has already spoken about Israel — albeit not as a state, but as a place where anti-war Russian artists ended up after 2022.
In the interview, he recalls musicians who left Russia, mentions those who ended up “in Israel”, talks about old songs like “While the Candle Burns”, and then utters a phrase that today sounds especially cynical:
“We just kind of cleansed ourselves from them”.
Quote (a riddle for the reader – and about whom?):
“some musicians who are now there in Israel are no longer even in Israel – also a Small country but they once toured the country twice there. And then what. Well, everyone listened to the jokes, listened to the old songs there while the candle burns listened here all the anger that he kind of poured out on Russia [ __ ] all [ __ ]
And I consider him crap
Well, I don’t sing songs about just he doesn’t care about me as it used to be, and now even more so this is already a hackneyed phrase, that is, about the fact that they left There vatniks they left rashka and so on left here we just kind of cleansed ourselves from them I will say so if about this”
That is, at first he talks about anti-war emigration as people from whom Russia supposedly “cleansed itself”.
And now he himself appears in the Israeli poster — in a country where many of those who did not want to be part of Putin’s Russia after 2022 live.
This is no longer just a tour.
This is almost a symbolic scene.
Those from whom he, in his words, “cleansed himself”, live here, work here, perform here, raise children here, build a new life here.
And he comes here as if without this phrase, without this intonation, without this public memory.
But public memory does not disappear just because the poster has a different design.
“And I consider him crap”
There is also another phrase in the interview that is hard to ignore.
Speaking about one of the anti-war musicians who left, “Will and Reason” says:
“And I consider him crap.”
It could have been left unquoted.
It could have been softened and written: “spoke sharply”.
But such words show not only a political stance but also a tone. This is no longer a calm debate about views, not a disagreement, not an attempt to explain one’s side.
This is contempt for those who did not want to be part of the Putin consensus.
And when a person with such a tone appears in an Israeli program, the question becomes even more acute. Because Israel, after 2022, has become home to many people whom Russian war supporters call traitors, fugitives, “those who left”, “those who cleansed” the country of themselves.
Now one of those who speaks like this comes to this territory himself—not as a political guest, not as a participant in a discussion, but as an artist offered a stage.
Not one phrase, but political loyalty
Sometimes after such interviews, attempts are made to say: the person lost it, said too much, expressed himself incorrectly, was misunderstood.
But in this story, such a defense does not work.
“Will and Reason” speaks not only “for the SVO”.
He separately explains his trust in Putin.
In the interview, it sounds:
“I always voted for him.”
And even more directly:
“I trust Putin.”
This is important because we are not dealing with a random remark about the war.
We are dealing with a person who himself links his civic position with Putin, the Russian government, and the war against Ukraine.
Even when the conversation moves away from the war to internal Russian politics, it returns to the same loyalty. Discussing the increase in the retirement age, he says:
“I am grateful to Putin. He is great.”
That is, for him, Putin is not a random figure in one conversation about the war. This is a point of trust. This is the political center through which he explains both the external war and Russia’s internal decisions.
For the Israeli program, this can no longer be an invisible detail.
“I don’t watch Solovyov or Skabeeva”
There is another characteristic moment.
“Will and Reason” says he doesn’t watch Solovyov or Skabeeva, doesn’t follow the programs, and is not interested in politics.
But almost immediately explains:
“We have a supreme commander-in-chief. I fully trust him.”
This connection is very indicative.
The person seems to distance himself from the propaganda TV, but at the same time repeats the key constructs of the same political world: trust in the supreme, the guilt of the West, the guilt of Ukraine, “Nazis”, NATO, Zelensky, the necessity of “SVO”.
This is how not only television works.
This is how the loyalty system works.
Even if a person says they don’t watch propagandists, it doesn’t mean they don’t live within their language.
“He should have been shot”
In the interview, there is a phrase that goes beyond the topic of Ukraine but says a lot about the political culture from which “Will and Reason” speaks.
Speaking about former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, he says:
“He should have just been shot against the wall… shot, then raised again, shot again.”
This is not about music.
Not about a concert.
Not about the old stage.
This is a language in which violence becomes an acceptable form of political assessment. You can hate a politician. You can criticize an era. You can consider a historical period a disaster. But when in a public interview a person speaks the language of “against the wall” and “shoot”, it also becomes part of his public portrait.
And the audience in Israel has the right to know that in front of them is not just a nostalgic figure from old rock, but a person whose public speech is arranged in this way.
Why Tel Aviv is not a neutral platform
Tel Aviv is not an empty stage on the map.
It is a city in a country where after February 24, 2022, many people found themselves for whom the Russian war against Ukraine became a personal story.
Someone came from Kyiv.
Someone from Kharkiv.
Someone from Odessa.
Someone from Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol.
Someone left Russia because they did not want to live in a country where the war is called “SVO”, and silence is turned into a form of loyalty.
Someone helps Ukraine from Israel: collects money, medicines, equipment, humanitarian aid, supports families, writes, translates, explains, argues, does not let forget.
For these people, the phrase “I am for Russia, I am for Putin, I am for the SVO” is not just a musician’s opinion.
It is support for the very machine that destroys Ukrainian cities.
This is not a debate about taste.
Not a debate about guitar sound.
Not a debate about who was better on the old rock scene.
This is a question of boundaries.
There are words after which a person can no longer enter the hall as if nothing happened.
What the audience should know before buying a ticket
In Israel, the audience has the right to know whom they are being offered to listen to.
Not just the name on the poster.
Not just old songs.
Not just a beautiful legend about the past.
But also today’s words of the person who takes the stage.
If a musician publicly said “I am for Russia, I am for Putin, I am for the SVO”, this should not be hidden behind light, sound, and advertising text.
If he spoke about “Nazis” in Ukraine, the audience has the right to know that this is the language behind his current public position.
If he spoke about anti-war artists in Israel “we just kind of cleansed ourselves of them”, the Israeli audience has the right to ask why this person now appears here as a regular participant in a concert evening.
If he says “I trust Putin”, the audience has the right to know that this is not about one slipped phrase.
If he says “I am grateful to Putin. He is great”, then his loyalty to Putin can no longer be reduced only to the topic of war.
And if the organizers knew about this, they should explain why they decided it was unimportant.
And if they didn’t know—this is also a question.
Because after 2022, ignorance has ceased to be a convenient excuse.
Questions for the organizers
This article does not demand shouting.
It demands an answer.
Did the organizers know about the public phrase “my position is unequivocal. I am for Russia, I am for Putin, I am for the SVO”?
Did they know about the words about “Nazis” in Ukraine?
Did they know about the phrase “we just kind of cleansed ourselves of them”, said in the context of anti-war artists in Israel?
Did they know about the words “and I consider him crap” addressed to an anti-war musician who left?
Did they know that the musician himself says: “music is outside politics”—“this cannot be”?
Did they know that he himself claims: “a person must have a position, a civic position”?
Did they know about his words “I trust Putin” and “I always voted for him”?
Does the organizer consider it normal to sell a concert in Israel with the participation of a person who publicly supported Putin and the so-called “SVO”?
Are the organizers ready to say this openly to the audience?
Or should the audience first buy a ticket and only then find out whose words were behind the poster?
Not a ban, but responsibility
Here it is important not to substitute the conversation.
It’s not about automatically declaring any concert illegal.
It’s not about replacing facts with slogans.
It’s not about demanding punishment without legal procedure.
It’s about something else.
About public responsibility.
About honesty before the audience.
About the right of Israeli society to know what kind of people appear on its stages after publicly supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Because there are things that cannot be washed away by a tour.
You cannot say “I am for Russia, I am for Putin, I am for the SVO”, and then come to Israel as if it was just a musical biography.
You cannot talk about “Nazis” in Ukraine, and then expect that the Ukrainian and Israeli audience will not notice.
You cannot speak contemptuously about anti-war artists in Israel, and then take the Israeli stage without questions.
More precisely, physically you can.
But then the questions should be asked.
Why this is not a personal story of one musician
The main thing here is not the name.
That’s why we don’t mention it.
The main thing is not passport data, not old fame, not fan disputes, and not musical achievements.
The main thing is the public position and the place where it now appears.
If “Will and Reason” remained within the Russian concert field, it would be one story. But when a person with the phrase “I am for Russia, I am for Putin, I am for the SVO” appears on an Israeli poster, the story becomes different.
Because Israel is a country where the Russian war against Ukraine has long ceased to be distant news.
People who have lost their homes live here.
People whose relatives remain under Russian shelling live here.
People who collect aid for Ukraine live here.
People who left Russia precisely because they did not want to have anything to do with the war live here.
And next to this appears “Will and Reason” — a musician from the poster, who publicly said:
“I am for Russia, I am for Putin, I am for the SVO.”
Conclusion
The story with “Will and Reason” in Tel Aviv is not just a concert poster.
It’s a test.
For the organizers.
For the venues.
For the ticket services.
For the audience.
For the entire Israeli cultural environment, which after 2022 can no longer pretend that the Russian war against Ukraine is somewhere far away, and the words of artists mean nothing.
You can not disclose the name.
You can not turn the vile formula “for Putin, for the SVO” into a second name.
You can leave one conditional name for this article — “Will and Reason”.
But you can’t remove the main question.
Why in Israel does a musician who publicly supported Putin and the so-called “SVO” appear in ticket sales as an ordinary participant in a musical event?
And who is ready to explain to the audience why this should be considered normal?
What to do for those who remember old rock
Many remember “Will and Reason” not for political interviews, but for old rock — for songs that once sounded like energy, freedom, youth, and inner protest.
For some, these songs still send shivers down their spine because they contain not only music but also part of their own life: first concerts, cassettes, friends, night talks, the feeling that a guitar can be more honest than newspapers and TV.
That’s why today’s story is so unpleasant.
The person whose songs someone remembers as an anti-war nerve and voice of resistance now speaks of trust in Putin, about “Nazis” in Ukraine, about how “music is outside politics” — “it can’t be like that,” and about those who left Russia after the war began, with the phrase “we just kind of cleansed ourselves of them.”
This does not cancel the listener’s past memory.
But it changes today’s choice.
You can remember the songs and not justify the author. You can acknowledge that this music was once important, but not buy a ticket today. You can keep the past for yourself, but not let it work against your conscience.
Old music does not have to disappear from memory just because its author ended up on the other side of the moral boundary.
But it should not become a cover for his today’s words.
If a person himself said where he stands, the audience also has the right to choose their place: not to go to the concert, to ask the organizers, not to support the poster with silence, and not to turn nostalgia into an indulgence.
