Culture workers treat honoured artist award to 15-year-old Chechen teenager as nonsense

In Russia, the title of Honoured Artist is awarded after 20 years of creative activity. Assigning the title to a 15-year-old teenager is an unprecedented case, said cultural workers when commenting on the award to Yusup Aliev in Chechnya.

Residents of Chechnya criticized the fact that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov awarded the title of Honoured Artist to Yusup Aliev, a 15-year-old semi-finalist of the music contest "You are super!". Local cultural workers and users of social networks believe such a decision devalues the title of Honoured Artist.

"This is a unique case when such a title is assigned to such a young singer. Probably, in Chechnya, they simply wanted and assigned the title," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Anatoly Popov, Honoured Culture Worker of the Russian Federation.

Anatoly Popov could not remind such cases, neither in recent years nor in Soviet times. Meanwhile, according to him, the title of Honoured Artist does not provide any benefits.

Alexander Gavrilov, the first deputy head of the Saint Petersburg branch of the Russian Creative Union of Cultural Workers, also notes it is a case unique for Russia when the 15-year-old singer has been awarded the title of Honoured Artist.