J-Lo Is Back in the Former USSR as Putin Drives Stars Out of Moscow
Jennifer Lopez during a concert in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2019.
Photographer: Aleksey Smagin/SIPAPRE/AP Photo
Shortly after wrapping up a residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Backstreet Boys made their debut in Kazakhstan. A few weeks earlier, Jennifer Lopez had played there and in neighboring Uzbekistan. In July, Justin Timberlake sang in Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Across the former Soviet bloc, music fans have seen a surge of interest from some of the biggest names in US music since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine effectively shut down Moscow as a tour destination in 2022.