Music school student arrested for performing “banned” songs

October 15 in St. Petersburg detained 18-year-old student of the music school Diana Loginova, known as Naoko. The reason was the performance of street musicians, members of the Stoptime group, songs officially recognized as “banned” in Russia.

The story began with a video published on Instagram by the publication “Paper”, in which the group Stoptime, led by Diana Loginova, publicly performed the songs of musician Noise MC. After virally distributing the video, the band was detained by police and the musicians paid a fine. Noise MC spoke in support of the group, and their Telegram channel gained almost 20,000 subscribers.

However, their activities attracted the attention of various people. A few days ago in social networks appeared a video where Naoko performs the song Noise MC "Cooperative "Swan Lake", which was also recognized as "banned". The reaction was sharp: a member of the Human Rights Council Marina Akhmedova posted a video of the group with a detailed comment, accusing the musicians of supporting a “foreign agent” and “betraying” Russia. Authorities also began to suspect the group of organizing a mass gathering of people.

As a result, Naoko and her colleagues were arrested for 13 days under an administrative article about organizing mass stays of citizens in public places. This is expected to be only the first step in further proceedings, given the recent admission of Paper and musicians such as Monetochka and Noise MC as foreign agents, and the fact that such comments almost amount to a statement to the prosecutor's office.