A teenage street performer has been incarcerated in St. Petersburg for leading a crowd in singing a rock song critical of President Putin, an uncommon display of dissent, according to local media accounts.
Identified as Diana Loginova, she has been charged with orchestrating an unauthorized public event and sentenced to 13 days in jail, as reported by The Moscow Times.
Upon completing her jail term, Loginova will confront an additional charge of “discrediting” the Russian military, Reuters noted.
A Russian police officer is seen removing handcuffs from Loginova, an 18-year-old musician known as Naoko, who was detained for singing a government-banned song to her fans before a court session in Saint Petersburg, Russia. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)
Performing under the stage name Naoko with her band Stoptime, Loginova was apprehended on Tuesday after a recording captured her leading a crowd in the lyrics of “Swan Lake Cooperative,” a song by exiled rapper Noize MC.
Noize MC, the creator of “Swan Lake Cooperative,” is a vocal critic of the Kremlin and relocated to Lithuania following the onset of the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow Dec. 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)
In May, a St. Petersburg court banned the song on grounds 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.”
