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Paul McCartney waving Ukrainian flag raises eyebrows over his past 'relationship' with Putin

McCartney had a good rapport with the Russian strongman, which was visible in 2003 when the music legend sat down to chat with Putin in a televised meeting

Sir Paul McCartney surprised audiences by waving the Ukrainian flag as he kicked off his 2022 world tour in Spokane, Washington after the music legend had marked the milestone as the first Beatle to perform in Russia in 2003.

Vladimir Putin has previously stated that Russians were not allowed to listen to The Beatles under the Soviet regime in the 1980s. However, the British quartet was a hit in Russia despite the disapproval of officials. In fact, Putin is a Beatles fan himself and was partially responsible for getting McCartney to perform at the Red Square in Moscow. Russian musician Sasha Lipnitsky famously noted that The Beatles were the “first hole in the iron curtain.”

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McCartney waving the Ukrainian flag in solidarity with those affected by the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces raised eyebrows on social media, considering his past association with Putin.

"Putin sat with other Russians when Paul McCartney held a concert in Red Square," one Twitter user wrote.

"Done deliberately. Sir Paul has the imperium to do as he freaking well likes and say it just as bluntly. MASSIVE kick in the teeth for Putin who met with McCartney years ago when he toured Russia," another gushed.

"I remember when Paul McCartney performed that song [Back in the USSR] in Red Square and, I'm pretty sure, Putin actually showed up. (I seem to think he may have gone on stage). Anyway, it was a hopeful time for Russia - or at least we thought so. Now, Russia has descended into a terrible Fascism," someone else offered

When Western music was heavily banned in the Soviet Union, Russians would go to extreme lengths to obtain records that were secretly copied into x-ray film to go undetected. McCartney, also known as Macca, stunned audiences in 2003 when he crashed into ‘Back in The U.S.S.R’ to nearly 20K fans at the Red Square in Moscow. He had written the song in 1968, inspired by Chuck Berry’s ‘Back in the U.S.A’.

McCartney, who took his first-ever performance in Moscow as a show of love across boundaries, explained at the time how the track was a bit of a parody of the Berry song. “I just liked the idea of Georgia girls and talking about places like Ukraine as if they were California, you know? It was also hands across the water, which I’m still conscious of. ‘Cause they like us out there [in Soviet Russia], even though the bosses in the Kremlin may not,” he said.

McCartney also shook hands with Putin in a televised meeting. “When you were growing up, did you listen to the Beatles?” he asked the Russian strongman, to which the latter replied, “The music was very popular like a breath of fresh air, a window into the outside world.”

And when asked whether The Beatles was banned in the Soviet Union, Putin said, “It wasn’t banned, but people weren’t allowed to play it in the Red Square as recently as the 1980s. The Beatles had been widely listened to in the Soviet Union despite official’s disapproval.”

McCartney's setlist for the landmark concert at the Red Square consisted of several Beatles chart-toppers, including ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘We Can Work It Out’, and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’.