![]() ![]() It remains unclear if the recent crackdown has been directed by federal Russian authorities or driven by overzealous local officials. “It’s a perfect way to say f- you to the government,” Kostylev added. “People go crazy, it’s a big adventure for them - people love what is forbidden,” Kreslina said. Details are sent out on an encrypted messaging app and people bring their own lights and sound systems. In the wake of so many obstacles, they now know how to organize secret, backup concerts. Indeed, less than an hour after their release from custody in Novosibirsk, Kreslina and Kostylev were playing to a 300-strong crowd at an abandoned loft on the outskirts of the city. “Anything that is forbidden only encourages the imagination,” he said, adding that bands will start changing their names and holding secret concerts to dodge police. Unlike in Soviet times, when Soviet rock stars were forced underground by Communist officials, “now all musicians are equal in front of the main channel for the distribution of content - the internet,” Barabanov said. “If people get scared of your art, you are most likely doing the right thing.”īoris Barabanov, a music columnist at Russia’s top business daily, Kommersant, said the government crackdown will only fuel “tougher, more biting songs” and foster greater resourcefulness to get around the restrictions. “We are taking people out of their comfort zone, because it helps people to think, it opens up new feelings and emotions,” Kostylev said. Kreslina and Kosylev maintain, however, their work is aimed more at shaking up popular perceptions than making an overtly political statement. They believe their most recent one, which fused ghoulish images of the pair lying in coffins with a backdrop of the FSB security service headquarters, is what has vexed the authorities. Their music videos use occult and “slaughterhouse” imagery, often featuring them in disturbing guises drinking blood and eating raw meat. “We don’t want to stop performing,” she said. Kreslina said the authorities were using “old, tried and tested Soviet methods” to crack down on musicians accused of overstepping. 1 detention in Siberia, the artists have been hounded for weeks by the police and the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main KGB successor agency. Other artists have been affected as well - pop sensation Monetochka and punk band Friendzona were among those who had their concerts shut down by the authorities last month. 30, rapper Gone.Fludd announced two concert cancellations, citing pressure from “every police agency you can imagine,” while the popular hip hop artist Allj cancelled his show in the Arctic city of Yakutsk after receiving threats of violence. However, the official Russian pressure on artists has continued. Husky climbed onto a car, surrounded by hundreds of fans, and chanted “I will sing my music, the most honest music!” before he was taken away by police.Ī court sentenced Husky to 12 days in jail on charges of hooliganism, but he was released four days later - hours before a solidarity concert in Moscow by popular hip hop artists protesting his detention. 21 when local prosecutors warned the venue that his act had elements of what they termed “extremism.” The 25-year-old rapper, known for his lyrics about poverty, corruption and police brutality, was preparing to take to the stage on Nov. Last month, a rapper known as Husky, whose videos have garnered more than 6 million views on YouTube, was arrested after he staged an impromptu performance when his show was shut down in the southern city of Krasnodar. More recently it follows the 2012 jailing of Pussy Riot punk band members and other heavy-handed moves by President Vladimir Putin’s government to tighten control over the nation’s cultural scene - reflecting uneasiness with the musicians’ broad reach and challenge to official policies. The crackdown evokes Soviet-era restrictions on the music scene, when Communist Party officials drove rock musicians deemed an ideological threat underground. In recent months, Russian musicians have experienced a spike in pressure from the authorities, with a string of concert cancellations and arrests that have brought an outcry from critics, who see it as the latest censorship against Russian artists. “These are just ratty methods of fighting against art.” “We have received no official statements, no letters, nothing,” Kostylev told The Associated Press of the harassment. Club owners have been pressured not to host them and threatened with fines and closures. ![]() ![]() During their Russia-wide tour, which began last month and has spanned venues from the Volga River city of Kazan to far-eastern Siberia, six of their 11 concerts have been cancelled.
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