Famed conductor who is close friends with Putin was fired from his orchestra for not condemning Ukraine invasion

• Valery Gergiev, a renowned conductor, was fired from the Munich Philharmonic on Tuesday.
• An personal friend of Putin, he refused to distance himself from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

One of the world's most respected conductors was fired on Tuesday as cultural institutions recoiled in horror at Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russian maestro Valery Gergiev was booted from his job as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra after his bosses said he refused to condemn the war started by his personal friend Vladimir Putin.

It was the most striking in a series of setbacks for Gergiev, who has had concerts cancelled and been asked to resign from honorary positions throughout the classical music world.

Gergiev has long been a vocal supporter of Putin, a personal friend since the 1990s, but the connection became too much for his employers after the invasion.

Dieter Reiter, the mayor of Munich, announced Gergiev's termination from the Munich orchestra in a press release Monday.

Reiter had on Friday demanded that Gergiev publicly distance himself from the invasion or be fired.

"I would have expected him to reconsider and revise his very positive assessment of the Russian ruler. He didn't," Dieter said in the press release.

New York's Carnegie Hall and the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland have also canceled Gergiev's upcoming engagements.

Gergiev's manager also quit working for Gergiev on Sunday. The Rotterdam Philharmonic and La Scala have said they will cancel future bookings with Gergiev unless he clarifies his position on Ukraine.

The artist has not spoken publicly about Russia's attack on Ukraine, The New York Times reported on Friday, but has made no secret of is sympathies in the past.

Gergiev has known since the early 90s, per the New York Times, when both were in Putin's home town of St Petersburg.

Gergiev, also the long-standing general and artistic director of St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater, was honored by Putin with an official "Hero of Labour" commendation in 2013,

At the 2013 opening ceremony of a million dollar-expansion to the Mariinsky Theater, Putin offered Gergiev a birthday toast, per The New Yorker.

Gergiev has also been publically supportive of Putin's career, endorsing his presidential campaigns and denouncing anti-government band Pussy Riot, who galvanized opposition to Putin in the cultural sphere.

The Russian conductor came under fire in 2014 after signing a letter supporting Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, an early Russian move which helped set in motion events leading to the invasion in February 2022.

In 2016, Gergiev organized a concert in the ruins of Palmyra, Syria, shortly after they were captured by the Russia-backed Syrian forces, per the BBC.