“Russian Wife is to Blame”: American Rockers Will Not Be Allowed into Estonia 0 13

Fred Durst, the frontman of Limp Bizkit, founded in 1994, was married for several years (from 2012 to 2018) to makeup artist Ksenia Beryazina, a native of the Crimean Peninsula. In 2014, Durst expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him "a man with clear moral principles," and stated that he would like to live in Crimea.

The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Americans will not be allowed into Estonia. "Estonia supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine and believes that every inch of Ukrainian land belongs to Ukraine. There is no place for supporters of the aggressor state in Estonia or in the Estonian cultural space," said the Ministry's spokesperson Brita Kikkas to ERR.

The concert organizers from the Baltic Live Agency had previously announced in a press release sent to the media on Friday afternoon that, among other things, they were aware of Durst's support for Crimea being Russian in 2015, and they firmly condemn such actions and statements.

"We can only explain this by the fact that at that time (before 2019) Fred Durst was married to a Russian woman from Crimea and was probably in a distorted information space," noted Gunnar Viiese, the public relations manager of Baltic Live Agency.

"As far as we know, since 2022 the artist has not made any statements glorifying Russia. Artists often address their international audience on social media, so in our opinion, there is no problem that Limp Bizkit has addressed the Russian audience over the past ten years," said Viiese.

"We also assumed that the artist's concerts were held at major supporters of Estonia and Ukraine," Viiese added, citing examples of Limp Bizkit's performances over the past five years – in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, and France.