From persecution to state support

Vladimir Putin instructed his administration to develop measures to support modern popular music, including in demand by youth, and involve the expert community to discuss. The plan of priority actions on this issue should be submitted by September 1, Sergey Kiriyenko has been appointed responsible. Earlier, the president expressed concern about the abolition of rap concerts in Russia.

The state support of pop music was the first item in the list of instructions in the field of culture and art published on the Kremlin website. The Cabinet of Ministers will “organize a discussion with the participation of representatives of the expert community and expert organizations of state support for modern popular music, including areas in demand by the youth audience, as well as modern types of visual arts.”

Exhibition "Game with masterpieces" / AGN "Moscow" / Photo: Ivanko Igor

The list was compiled following a meeting of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation on Culture and Art, held in December last year. In total, there are six instructions, among them the preservation of historical development and cultural heritage objects in several regions, equipping small settlements with modular cultural houses, targeted training of foreigners in Russia for programs related to art, support for children's literature and more.

Recall that at the end of the year, in a number of Russian cities, concerts of popular rap artists were massively canceled, in some cases the conversation came to the initiation of criminal cases, lawyers announced the creation of the “black lists” of musicians in the FSB, but did not appear official confirmation of this information. The Ministry of Internal Affairs denied the existence of an order to disrupt concerts and promised to understand the situation.

Public discussion was quite lively. The first deputy head of the Russian Presidential Administration, Sergei Kiriyenko, called what was happening stupidity and added that the youth environment is quite unusual, and it is necessary to be able to work with it so that it does not turn into that "when someone does not accidentally understand it or he does not like it, it ends with prohibitions of concerts." Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov reported that the Kremlin is "monitoring very carefully." The director of the foreign intelligence service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin proposed to allocate state grants to rap artists. Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky said that "it is better to intervene less in cultural processes, especially in the youth environment."

V. Medinsky / AGN "Moscow" / Photo: Nikerichev Andrey

At the December profile meeting, Vladimir Putin spoke about the problem. The president asked to be careful with prohibitions in the field of culture. “The way to grab and not let go” is the most ineffective, the worst that you can come up with. And the effect will be the opposite expected, ”he explained. At the same time, the Russian leader called “revolutionary”.

The hype around the abolition of performances is not the first time when statesmen paid attention to modern trends in youth art. So, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin composed rap about the situation in Ukraine. His colleague Olga Golodets in 2017 said that it was not worth ignoring the language that is formed on rap battles, and Gennady Onishchenkoproposed punishing the state media for publications about them. Then the deputy of the State Duma Vitaly Milonov demanded to shoot the reapers of the purulent and oximiron, and the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Andrei Anokhin asked the general prosecutor to check their battles for extremism. However, the prosecutors decided not to check the rappers, but by the deputies themselves, who, in the wake of these events, also decided to measure Floo.

Rap Battle / YouTube.com

A year before, the UK started an extremism case on the Russian rapper Ptahu (real name - David Nuriev). The decision was made after the audit of one of his concerts, during which the performer expressed insults to the participants in the Anti -Dijaler movement. A month before, the Fair Russia party released a multiplier video in which in the Debattla-election debate in the rap battles format, Oximironov (cartoon on Sergey Mironov) and Zuggano (cartoon on Gennady Zyuganov) came together.

They used rap as a tool for combating crimes. From the Altai Territory, an application was sent to the Guinness Book of Records for the maximum number of performers of the same track and the length of the record itself. Thus, local musicians prepared a musical gift for Vladimir Putin, the content was devoted to exposing corruption in the region.