A conductor who is a friend and prominent support of Vladimir Putin, will not lead the Vienna Philharmonic in a five-concert U.S. tour.

Carnegie Hall and the Vienna Philharmonic announced that Russian conductor Valery Gergiev will no longer lead a series of concerts there this week amid growing international condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine.

The 68-year-old star maestros is music director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, and is chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic.

He received a Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation prize that Putin revived in 2013.

Metropolitan Opera music director and Canadian Yannick Nezet-Seguin will instead lead the Carnegie concerts.