The case of Ciro Cerillo, alias Jorit, the street artist from Quarto who has caused controversy in recent days for having asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for a photo, aimed at “demonstrating the humanity” of the Russian president, is increasingly opaque . From what he reveals Linkiesta, Jorit received 90,000 euros from a company controlled by the Russian Ministry of Construction to create ten murals in Russian regions and occupied Ukraine. It seems that his works had the propaganda objective, financed by the Russian government, of presenting these occupied territories as examples of “innovation and freedom”. Indeed, in the summer of last year, the artist and his team of six people were hired for this project and were therefore allegedly financed by the Kremlin through a consortium of companies from the Leningrad region, the St. Petersburg region, designated by the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Transport. The companies would then pay for their equipment, travel, food and accommodation as well as costs amounting to around 90 thousand euros.
Objective European elections and young people
Jorit has been controversial on several occasions due to his statements and artistic choices. Before the photo, the street artist was already boasting of the praise received from Putin for the mural dedicated to the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, painted on the facade of a school in Fuorigrotta, in Naples. Praise came after the decision, later retracted, by the Bicocca University of Milan to suspend courses on Dostoyevsky, taught by the specialist in Russian literature Paolo Nori. In addition, in recent days it has been selected as a testimony to “Italian cultural resistance to the West” on the occasion of the Sochi Youth Festival. His character, reports Linkiesta, could aim to influence the Italian public debate in view of the European elections which will take place in June. The main objective could in particular be to reach the younger generations.
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