Kanye West is taking his comeback tour to Russia. The venue announced two concerts at the Gazprom Arena in St. Petersburg, which holds 70,000 people, on 10 and 11 October, Consequence reported on 19 August 2026.
Tickets for both nights went on sale with the announcement, priced between 15,000 roubles, about 176 dollars, and 225,000 roubles, about 2,650 dollars.
The booking drew objections inside the country. The lawmaker Nikolay Novichkov told Ostorozhno Novosti that foreign artists who want to perform in Russia should first say publicly that they support its war against Ukraine, and that he would raise the question of cancelling the concerts if that did not happen. "They want to make money," he said of visiting performers. Novichkov also said he would open a review of the rapper's past statements praising Adolf Hitler to work out whether they could warrant prosecution.
The Russian dates extend a touring year that has run hot and cold. After two sold-out shows in Los Angeles earlier this year, Consequence reported, he drew a reported 118,000 people in Turkey, played two nights in the Netherlands and one in Georgia, then Tampa and San Antonio in the United States, followed by Albania, Spain, Portugal and, most recently, Kazakhstan.
Cancellations have run alongside it. A planned debut in India was scrapped over security concerns, and dates in the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Switzerland, Italy and Brazil were called off or pushed back after government and venue objections, much of it tied to a backlash over his conduct in recent years. He made antisemitic remarks in 2022, sold a swastika T-shirt and released a song called "Heil Hitler"; in January he took out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal apologising for his behaviour and writing that he is not a Nazi or an antisemite.
His Tampa stadium shows left the local sports authority in profit, and the Russian bookings were flagged here as a test of the cultural boycott when they first surfaced; both October dates are now on the tour guide with the rest of his hip-hop itinerary. The published schedule runs from Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on 28 August, through two nights at Soldier Field in Chicago on 3 and 4 September and the St. Petersburg pair, to Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta on 24 October.
The facts
- Two concerts are set for the Gazprom Arena in St. Petersburg on 10 and 11 October
- The arena holds 70,000 people
- Tickets range from about 176 dollars to about 2,650 dollars
- Lawmaker Nikolay Novichkov threatened to seek the cancellation of the shows
- He said foreign artists should publicly back Russia's war against Ukraine
- A planned India debut was scrapped over security concerns
- UK, France, Poland, Switzerland, Italy and Brazil dates were cancelled or postponed
- The tour reaches Jakarta on 24 October
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