Justin Timberlake has added a series of dates to his European tour with two taking place in Russia, which will see the artist perform there for the first time.

Following a series of dates across across Slovenia and Finland, the actor and singer will put on a show on May 15 in St. Petersburg and May 17 in Moscow. The St. Petersburg date will take place at the Soviet-era SKK (Sport and Concert Complex) with the Moscow date filling the Olympic Stadium that was built for the Olympic games back in 1980.

Recent tours in Russia haven't gone too well after a series of controversial events and court cases created thanks to the anti-gay laws that cite many artists as "gay propaganda". Most recently the promoters of Lady Gaga's tour were fined for their part in putting on shows in order to promote "homosexuality" and "alchohol" to young Russians. A similar case was brought against Madonna last year but was later thrown out of court. This has resulted in various musicians choosing to boycott the country for its homophobic views.

Recently Grimes also announced that she would be playing in Moscow, saying that boycotting a country due to its political and moral orientations only hurt fans and not the government. She said: "It doesn’t hurt the government if I refuse to tour there. Just regular people. So I don’t think it’s wrong to be doing this. Refusing to go to Russia would only hurt fans."

Below: Justin Timberlake headlines the 2013 iTunes festival