Since the end of May, the musicians who opposed the war have been poisoned in Telegram - now their concerts in St. Petersburg are canceled. What is known about this

In St. Petersburg and other cities of Russia, concerts of artists who opposed the war are massively canceled. According to the official version, the cancellation is not related to the position of musicians - the organizers refer to the performer’s illness, low sales or “causes that are not dependent on them”.

However, the abolition of a number of performances was preceded by persecution of artists in social networks. As the “paper” found out, from the end of May, representatives of state media and anonymous telegram channels have been engaged in it, in the names of which there is often the letter Z. The source of “paper” confirms that the real reason for the abolition of concerts is “a call from above”.

Read what is known about the cancellations of performances, how the musicians react to this and what the listeners say.

In St. Petersburg, concerts of eight musicians were canceled. The manage will not perform on the "stereol", but at the "excellent Fest" - Anacondaz and Dora

In May and June 2022, a number of music concerts were canceled in St. Petersburg and other cities of Russia. According to the calculations of “Paper” , to be torn performances at least eight.

In the St. Petersburg Philharmonic at the last moment, a concert of Vasily Sinai, the artistic director of the Philharmonic Orchestra named after Janachek in Ostrava in the Czech Republic, was canceled at the last moment. Information about the event disappeared from the site of the institution. The reasons for the cancellation on the site were not reported.

The Ginza restaurant canceled the concert of the Bi-2 rock band, scheduled for June 17, on the PMEF day. Information about the concert has disappeared from the website of the network, Kommersant said.

The changes occurred in the Linap of the June festivals "Stereoleto" and "Excellent Fest". The first representative of Russia will not speak at the “Eurovision” by the Mange and the pop-rock group “Aloever”. On the second there will be no groups "KIS-QIS" and Anacondaz, as well as the singers Alena Shvets and Dora.

In addition, rapper Max Korzh said that he himself canceled all concerts in Russia and Latvia planned for this year. Including the one that was supposed to be held on September 3 to Gazprom Arena.

All these musicians are united by the fact that they openly do not support the war in Ukraine:

• On February 28, the Sinaysky statement was published on the website of the Yanachek orchestra, which condemned Russia's actions in Ukraine. “In addition to the anger and indignation that I experience when I see the injustice of current events, I feel great compassion for the people of Ukraine,” wrote Sinai.
• The Bi-2 group did not openly condemn the war, but at the end of April refused to perform in the sports complex in Omsk because of the banner with the letter Z, hung over the stage.
• On February 24, Max Korzh wrote : "I condemn the invasion and bombardment of the sovereign state." In June, the rapper released a track with lines: “He is right who protects his house. / Spring is sobbing, Ukraine is burning. ”
• The manage also wrote on the day of the beginning of intensive military operations that war is not her choice. “The current events are against my will, against the will of my family, I believe that against the will of our peoples,” the post said .
• On the same day, Vera Musaleyan, the soloist of the Aloever group, said : “For my money they [Russian officials] kept me in fear of being mutilated by the batons of riot police on the streets of Moscow, for my money they commit criminal military operations.”
• The drummer "KIS-KIS" Alina Olesheva is conducting a popular twitter, where he criticizes the Russian power and war. At one of the Petersburg concerts of the group, the audience chanted : "Dick war!"
• Anacondaz on the first day of the war wrote : “You can’t ignore it. You can’t be silent. We are against the war. "
• Alena Shvets posted a video in Tiktok in which she sings: “Huge uncles are fighting all the time. They are to blame. <...> We live for two days. Around the war. "
• Dora basically did not speak about the war, but wrote on Twitter: "You will not solve anything with hatred." And on Instagram: "Let's live in peace." Also, after February 24, she announced the transfer of the release of the album and nearest concerts.

Because of the position of artists, they criticized on the Internet, and their performances were demanded to cancel. “Paper” found out that this was happening both in anonymous telegram channels supporting the war and in the pro-government media, and representatives of the authorities could give decrees on the abolition of concerts.

Half of the Sinai and Mange began in anonymous telegram channels. Some called to cancel the concerts of musicians and write denunciations on them in the Ministry of Internal Affairs

At the end of May 2022, shortly before the start of the summer concert season and three months of war, telegram channels supporting the Russian authorities almost simultaneously began to criticize musicians with an anti-war position for continuing to perform in Russia.

So, on May 31, in the anonymous channel “Cultural Front Z”, which is dedicated to the “victory” of Russia in the field of culture, a post was published about the concert of Kiderier Vasily Sinai. The post said: "Another, we are not afraid of this word, the bastard, decided to continue to earn money in the country condemned by it."

The post was distributed by numerous anonymous telegram channels supporting the war-for example, “ Russian answer z ” and “ Russians, forward! ".

A few days later, on June 4, the anonymous nationalist telegram channel "Multinational" began the grass of the singer Manizhi. In the post, the singer’s desire was condemned to speak at the stereoleto festival on June 13. “Yes, we hate Russia, it would have long been sinking, but the caution gene constantly reminds that there is no place to take more money for feeding,” the channel ironized .

Further, the post was distributed by other anonymous channels: “ Tolerasty ”, “ Cultural Front Z ”, Z-PolitWra . At the same time, the publication of a similar content was released in a fairly popular telegram channel “ sky ” (460 thousand subscribers).

Subsequently, these telegram channels demanded the abolition of concerts of artists, including referring to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and to high-ranking persons.

So, the “Cultural Front Z” wrote to Igor Sechin, the head of Rosneft, which is the general sponsor of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, where Vasily Sinai, wrote to Igor Sichin in the next post. “All hope is for you as the closest ally of our Supreme Commander. <...> We ask you ... to contribute to the cancellation of this concert! "

The Cyberfront Z channel in a post about the concert Manizhi asked the subscribers to "visit the under -approvers [on social networks] and remind you that they did not forget the begging from her in Russia and they are not waiting for it."

Later, the practice of bullying has spread to other artists. So, the Shard channel began to call users to write denunciations to artists in the Ministry of Internal Affairs - under articles on the discrediting of the army and about the state treason. Similar posts about Manizha , Max Korzh and Leonid Agutin came out in the channel.

Propagated bloggers, journalists and the media joined criticism. The leaders of St. Petersburg publications were personally outraged

In parallel with the anonymous telegram channels of artists opposing the war, authorized sources-bloggers, pro-government media and journalists also criticized.

So, on May 29, the general director of the St. Petersburg television channel Alexander Malkevich wrote a post about the concert of the Bi-2 group at the PMEF. He criticized the group for an “extremely confused” position. “Everything that was required of them was to somehow indicate his position in words or perform in the hospital that it would be equivalent to this position,” Malkevich noted. For Malkevich, he said that Bi-2 will perform with the concert “In one fashionable restaurant” during the PMEF, and tickets there will cost from 100 thousand rubles. “A little more, and in megacities, the audience will be invited to underground concerts and, possibly, even offer prohibited substances for gigantic money,” Malkevich wrote mysteriously.

After that, the topic of participation “Bi-2” in the concert during the PMEF was picked up by the St. Petersburg blogger Nikolai Kamnev, who worked as a PR specialist of the vice-governor Igor Albin. Kamnev described the members of the group as “musicians who supported the riots in Belarus in 2020, and in 2022 refused to support the special operation of the RF Armed Forces in Ukraine,” and criticized restaurateurs who “do not give a damn about the situation” were published by the reposting of several related Petersburg telegram channels, in the title of the letter Z: “ Petersburg Newz , " Northern Ztolitsa and Petersburg: News of the Z districts ."

TV channels and their representatives poisoned other artists. The article on the Sinai was released 78.ru and the Tsargrad TV channel. At the first, she was under the heading “Word - Sparrow: will they give a chance in St. Petersburg to act as a conductor who criticized his?”, The second, under the heading “A conductor who could not: Vasily Sinai, accusing Russia of meanness, does not disdain the budget.” The blogger and political emigrant Svetlana Pict , journalist Edward Chesnakov , as well as actress Maria Shukshina , also wrote about the concert of Sinai.

Glavred 78.ru Alexander Anuchkin wrote a post about the Linap of the Stereoleto festival. From the post it is unclear what exactly the claim of Anuchkin is. The publication lists Leonid Agutin, Manizh, Shortparis, Lucidvox and said: “And there are still a lot of musicians and groups that even Google does not know.” “I do not want my country to turn into Ukraine or the Western world - prohibitions, watering with green, sheeling. But I'm strange. <...> This will be the first “stereoleto” in history that I will not go to, ”the publication says.

Constantinople had several publications about Stereoleto at once - under the headings “Money is more expensive than principles? After the scandal, the singer of the Manizh is returning to Russia ”and“ in Russia they demand to “cancel” Manizhu and Agutin: they discredit the army of Russia. ”

Manizha and "Aloever" openly stated that their concerts were canceled by the organizers

Some artists openly said that the organizers cancel their concerts.

The singer Vera Musaleyan (“Aloever”) wrote on Instagram that her group was “crossed out of the posters”, and explained the reason: “Either you are completely satisfied with the General line of the party, or fuck with their songs.” At the same time, the group announced further summer concerts in Sochi and Moscow.

The manage also openly spoke about the “removal” of her from the festival. “I was removed from the stereoleto festival. I want to say only one thing: my audience is what I'm sure of. You hear me, ”she wrote.

Other musicians say that the organizers have nothing to do with it. Max Korzh wrote to Storis: “Small, as you already guessed, this year there will be no concerts in our countries. I can’t sing about life in high when these lives are selected every day. Take care of yourself! Everything will be fine!".

The ANACONDAZ participant Artem Khorev first posted a video message to the subscribers, saying that the group would not speak at the “excellent Fest” festival, but he hopes that the audience will support other performers. After the organizers announced the abolition of three more performances, Khorev ironically wrote on Twitter: “Everyone played perfectly in St. Petersburg.”

Singer Dora reported on Instagram Storis that she really wanted to perform at the excellent Fest, but her concert was canceled. “For reasons beyond my control and organizer,” she said.

Soloist "Kis-kis" Alena Olesheva on Twitter posted a post with a picture: "List of permitted artists: Chicherin, Samoilov, pilot." All of the listed are musicians supporting the war.

The organizers of the concerts refer to the causes independent of them. The source confirmed that the cancellation is a requirement "from above"

The “excellent Fest” officially explained to the cancellation of the speeches “Kis-kis”, Alena Shvets and Dora “circumstances that are independent of either the organizers or the artists.” The organizers of the stereoleto festival, in turn, wrote on VKontakte that the performance of Mani is canceled for reasons “independent” of them.

At the same time, the source of the “Paper” , close to the organization of “excellent Fest”, answered the question of whether there was a conditional call from the authorities with a demand to cancel the performance, the phrase of journalist Alexei Pivovarov: “Everyone understands everything.” According to the source, musicians with an anti-war position will be replaced by “excellent Fest” others: “They will be no worse and are not yet in all“ lists ”[forbidden musicians], but they have not been noted on Z-tutures.”

Are there lists of prohibited musicians in Russia? ↓

As Katya Starev, co -founder of the Ding Great, explains the “paper” , no one saw physical lists with the artists banned in Russia. However, the organizers of music festivals faced the demands of cancellation before February 24th.

“This usually happens like this: they call from the organs to the concert and report that it is not necessary to conduct a concert. The measures that they are talking about are very different - from an urgent fire inspectorate to any other, ”says Stareva.

Earlier, the organizers took a subscription from the artist to speak out at the event on political topics - and held a concert. However, in the last six months this has not been enough, Stareva explains.

The press service of the Ginza restaurants, where during the PMEF the Bi-2 group was supposed to perform, “Paper” said that “there are no special reasons” to cancel their concert. According to the press service, they decided to transfer the concert from June 15 to the 16th. “Garik Sukachev was free on this date, it was he who will speak,” explained Ginza employee. At the same time, the Reginum news agency stated that the replacement occurred due to low ticket sales.

Commenting on the abolition of the concert of Vasily Sinai, Deputy artistic director of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Yevgeny Petrovsky, told Fontanka that this is due to the disease of the conductor. According to Petrovsky, the musician was not allowed to perform problems with the neck.

“Paper” sent requests to the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the organizers of the stereoleto festival, but did not receive answers two days later.

The audience of artists was divided. Some believe that musicians should not "climb into politics." Most - supports them for an open position

Users of social networks reacted differently to the cancellation of concerts. Some believe that artists criticizing military operations in Ukraine should not perform in Russia. Under the post, Manizhi has comments: “Why speak for a fratricidal people (in your own words)? No need to perform more in Russia then. There should be a position, right? "

Someone writes that artists should not "climb into politics." “After all, the president of the country does not climb into professional competitions of singers. Why do singers and actors condemn his actions, not knowing and not understanding the true reasons, ”wrote Instagram user under the same post.

At the same time, most users support artists who openly express their position. Fans of the Bi-2 group created a petition with a request to return the concerts of performers. “Everyone has the right to choose, and this choice is not required to comply with the views of political structures. <...> Stop limiting our freedom, ”the text says.

Some users, having learned that the Manizh will not participate in the stereoleto festival, said they would not go there. They write that “good wins”, and thank the musicians for the expression of an anti -war position.

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What else to read:

• "This work was too expensive for me." Employees of Russian independent media about military censorship and locks.
• "With silence, all the worst happens." Petersburg artist Elena Osipova - about attacks during anti -war shares and reactions of others.