Musicians target of Russian crackdown
MOSCOW — When the Russian “dark rave” duo Nastya Kreslina and Nikolay Kostylev stepped off the train for their gig in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, the police were waiting on the frozen platform. They were asked for their passports, Kostylev was handcuffed and they were whisked away to the local police station.
There, the police claimed they’d received an anonymous call about drug possession. But Kreslina and Kostylev, whose experimental performances as the electronic duo IC3PEAK feature provocative, morbid and often gruesome themes, say the real reason for their arrest is their art.
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. Club owners have been pressured not to host them and threatened with fines and closures.
“We have received no official statements, no letters, nothing,” Kostylev told the Associated Press of the harassment. “These are just ratty methods of fighting against art.”
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 expression of censorship against Russian artists.
The crackdown evokes Soviet-era restrictions on the music scene, when Communist Party officials drove rock musicians deemed an ideological threat underground. 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.
Last month, a rapper known as Husky, whose videos have garnered more than six million views on YouTube, was arrested after he staged an impromptu performance when his show was shut down in the southern city of Krasnodar.
The 25-year-old rapper, known for his lyrics about poverty, corruption and police brutality, was preparing to take to the stage on Nov. 21 when local prosecutors warned the venue that his act had elements of what they termed “extremism.”
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.
A 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 a group of popular hip hop artists protesting his detention.
However, the official pressure on artists has continued.
On Nov. 30, rapper Gone.Fludd announced two concert cancellations, citing pressure from “every police agency you can imagine,” while popular hip hop artist Allj cancelled his show in the Arctic city of Yakutsk after receiving threats of violence.
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.
In IC3PEAK’s case, besides their Dec. 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. Kreslina said the authorities were using “old, tried and tested Soviet methods” to crack down on musicians accused of overstepping.
“We don’t want to stop performing,” she said. “But we think it’s getting worse.”
Their music videos use occult and “slaughterhouse” imagery, often featuring them in disturbing guises drinking blood and eating raw meat. 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
Kreslina and Kosylev maintain, however, their work is aimed more at shaking up popular perceptions than making an overtly political statement.
“We are taking people out of their comfort zone, because it helps people to think, it opens up new feelings and emotions,” Kostylev said. “If people get scared of your art, you are most likely doing the right thing.”
Boris Barabanov, a music columnist at Russia’s top business daily, Kommersant, said the backlash will only fuel “tougher, more biting songs” and foster greater resourcefulness to get around restrictions.