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A teenage street musician has been jailed and charged with leading a public gathering in which she led a crowd in singing an anti-Putin rock song in St. Petersburg — a rare act of defiance, according to local reports.
Diana Loginova faces a single administrative charge for organizing an unauthorized public gathering and has been jailed for 13 days, The Moscow Times reported.
After serving her sentence, Loginova will face an additional administrative offense of “discrediting” the Russian military, Reuters reported.
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A Russian law enforcement officer removes handcuffs from Diana Loginova, an 18-year-old street musician performing under the name Naoko, who was detained after publicly singing a song banned by the government, in front of a crowd of fans, before a court hearing in Saint Petersburg, Russia. (Anton Vaganov / Reuters)
Loginova, who performs under the name Naoko with the band Stoptime, was arrested Tuesday after being filmed earlier leading a crowd in singing the lyrics to exiled rapper Noize MC’s hit song “Swan Lake Cooperative.”
Noize MC, the musician who wrote “Swan Lake Cooperative,” is openly critical of the Kremlin and left Russia for Lithuania after the start of the war in Ukraine.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024 (ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images)
For its part, Moscow has added him to its list of “foreign agents,” which includes hundreds of individuals and entities accused of conducting subversive activities with support from abroad, Reuters reported.
The song doesn’t reference Russian President Vladimir Putin or mention the war in Ukraine. It is a reference to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, which was played on television after the deaths of Soviet leaders and during the 1991 coup attempt against President Mikhail Gorbachev.
Diana Loginova, an 18-year-old street musician performing under the name Naoko, sits in a courtroom before a hearing in Saint Petersburg. (Anton Vaganov / Reuters)
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In May, a St. Petersburg court banned the song on the grounds that it “may contain signs of justification and excuse for hostile, hateful attitudes towards people, as well as statements promoting violent changes to the foundations of the constitutional order.”