VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 12 (Interfax) - Russian citizens, including cultural figures, who have moved abroad, can come back if they want, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"No one has blocked it [the road]. Who said don't come? By Russian law, a Russian citizen can live wherever he or she wants, and no one can deprive him or her of citizenship and bar them from entering Russia," Putin said at a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum.
According to various estimates, about 160-170 cultural figures have left Russia, Putin said.
"They sincerely disagree with what the Russian state is doing, but you can disagree while staying here, no one prohibits you from saying so, still some have preferred to leave," Putin said, adding that every person makes their own choice.
Many people who left over the past year "have bought houses and apartments and have opened bank accounts abroad, and are trying to keep those things, afraid of losing them," which is why they criticize the actions of Russian authorities from there, he said.
"As to whether Russian culture has been harmed, perhaps, if a talented person who could have done something. But, on the other hand, let them stay abroad rather than poison the minds of millions of our citizens and promote non-traditional values of some kind. Of course, that's a difficult question but, in the end, a person chooses one's fate on one's own," Putin said.
Theaters, concert halls and exhibition centers continue to work in Russia, and many cultural figures support special military operation participants, he said.