Latvian singer Laima Vaikule criticized journalists who "initially manipulate questions and answers". "You still drag me into political discussions. I do not understand anything in politics. I know that we are forbidden to work in the Crimea, "she said on the air of the Rossiya 24 television channel, commenting on her words, said earlier at a press conference in Odessa, about the impossibility of appearances in the annexed Crimea.

According to Vaikule, she did not intend to make any political statements, but only answered the journalist's question about a possible trip to the Crimea. "I say: no, because in our country the law prohibiting work in the Crimea is as simple as it is, why do you do some political demonstration from this?" Said Vaikule.

Vaikule's words about the impossibility of her work in the Crimea received great resonance in the official Russian media.

The singer was criticized by a member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Alexei Pushkov, singer Oleg Gazmanov and pop producer Iosif Prigozhin. In the social networks, a wave of "heather", crude-hate comments in her address.

On August 11, at a press conference in Odessa, Laima Vaikule, responding to a local newspaper correspondent, asked if she would go to the Crimea, she said: "I will not go there, whatever fee I'm offered". In addition, she said that she "does not and can not have nostalgia for the USSR," and she was "happy that it all collapsed".