A busker who has performed live on the streets of the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals multiple times in recent days in solidarity with fellow musicians who were arrested in St. Petersburg last week has been detained and charged with petty hooliganism, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Tuesday.
Screenshot: Yevgeny Mikhaylov / Telegram
Yevgeny Mikhaylov, who in one clip is seen performing next to a dinosaur holding a banner saying “Dinosaurs want freedom too”, was charged with swearing in public after performing Swan Lake Cooperative, an anti-war song by Russian rapper Noize MC.
The lyrics include: “Where have you been for eight years, you fucking monsters? I want to watch the ballet, watch the swans dance,” referring to the ballet Swan Lake, now a symbol of political turmoil after it was broadcast on state TV during the 1991 Soviet coup attempt.
A performance of the same song, which mocks Russian propaganda narratives from the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and was banned in Russia in May, prompted the arrest of another street musician, Diana Loginova, last week, who was later sentenced to 13 days in change and now faces additional charges for “discrediting” the Russian army.
Mikhaylov will be detained at the police station overnight. “I am alive and well, tomorrow is the trial. I am being held in custody until the trial. See you around! I love you all,” he wrote on Telegram.
The busker had come out in central Yekaterinburg several times in the past few days and performed songs by Monetochka and the group Pornofilmy, as well as Noize MC, in support of Loginova and musicians from the band Stoptime who were arrested alongside her in St. Petersburg last week.
