Ildar Abdrazakov has been appointed General Director of the Sevastopol State Opera and Ballet Theater.

The news was announced by Olga Lyubimova, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation via Telegram.

In a statement, Lyubimova said, “I sincerely wish him success and inspiration in tackling new creative tasks.”

According to reports the opera house was made with Western participation and was designed by the avant-garde Austrian architectural firm Coop Himmelb(l)au. It is a Kremlin-ordered cultural complex that was constructed on the southern tip of the peninsula. It is located alongside one of the Soviet Union’s largest war monuments and is a symbol of Russia’s defiance of punitive measures imposed following its 2014 seizure of the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula and ongoing involvement in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Abdrazaov was recently named a laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation and endorsed Putin. He has been fired from all his Western engagements and was named a member of Russia’s Presidential Council.