What happened to Roma Beast?

After 2014, he fundamentally did not go to Crimea, in 2022 he condemned the war-and then suddenly went to Donbass to star in the video of Russian propagandists

Prochrevsky "military commander" Semen Pegov, widely known as Wargonzo, on August 21 published a video that made a great resonance in Russia. In this video, the leader of the “Beasts” group Roma Beast (Roman Bilyk) in the helmet and military uniform is allegedly on excursions in the rear in the territory of the self -proclaimed DPR - there he is shown the work of an artillery gun for an unknown goal. Then the beast, along with the guitarist of the group German Osipov, performs the song "Speak" .

PEGOV claims that the musicians spoke in front of the Cascade detachment: this is the artillery unit, according to the “military commissar”, “cleared the quarters in Mariupol” (the Pegov quotes the song of the “district districts” ; the CASCADA ”in Mariupol is dedicated to the propaganda film ). At the same time, the audience that the beast sings is not shown in the video. “You are watching this video now, and I recall how Roman talentedly played Mike Naumenko in the movie. Real rock and roll-here he is, all with us. Through Roma including. It’s good that I arrived, ” wrote the military.

Unlike the beast, which until recently, publicly opposed the war, the guitarist of the "beasts" German Osipov traveled to the DPR in 2022. He appears in the documentary “PMC“ Filarmonia ” , which was shot by rapper Husky (Dmitry Kuznetsov; once he collaborated with Russian state television channels; in addition, Husky supports Donbass separatists for many years)-he can be seen at 6:30, he plays on the guitar. He is also in a video published on the channel of the singer Julia Chicherina (she violently supports the self -proclaimed Donetsk republics and Russia's invasion of Ukraine), where he plays along with the singer on the guitar. Three months ago, “militarycate” Pegov posted an interview with Osipov, calling the musician “animals” “a friend of the Wargonzo project”; Osipov himself published his photo with Semyon Fegov.

Medusa analysts who studied the video could neither confirm nor refute the reliability of this video; We do not know where it was removed, that they showed the beast and before whom he spoke.

"His behavior speaks of the desire to sit on two chairs"

Shortly before the musician’s trip to the self -proclaimed DPR, the authorities began to cancel the concerts of “animals”. On June 16, 2023, the group was supposed to become a headliner of performances on Palace Square in St. Petersburg; This event was held as part of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum . The exit of the “animals” was canceled shortly after the prosecutor’s office received a complaint about the anti -war position of the beast Roma: the demon wrote the dean of the Faculty of Journalism of the Moscow State Institute of Culture (MGIK) Yuri Kot. On his blog, he reasoned :

Bilyk has a rich biography of the real representative of the fifth column. When in 2020, Russian citizens voted for amendments to the Constitution , the idol of youth Roma Beast on a blue eye told how he never voted in the presidential election, how Russian society is afraid of the police and does not trust the authorities, and the vote should probably be boycredwheel, because they will still draw everything for the voter. Everyone remembers how Bilyk was active, defending the director Kirill Serebrennikov , was on the day of the court building, more than once spoke on the issue. ( Roma Beast really opposed the amendments to the Constitution, which “diverted” Putin’s deadlines, and also supported Kirill Serebrennikov; read about this below - approx. “Medusa”. )

After the complaint of the cat, the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Unicorn Konstantin Chebykin, asked the prosecutor's office to cancel the performance of the “animals” to the PMEF. As the Fontanka wrote on June 10 with reference to the organizers of the concert, the groups “Chizh and CO” and “Dzhango” supporting the war were replaced by the group on stage. The organizers of Fontanka did not comment on the cancellation of the performance of the “animals”.

The next day, June 11, the ShOT telegram channel said that, among other things, Roma’s beast “demanded to check for financing the Armed Forces” (Russian citizens for financing Ukrainian military threatens up to 20 years in prison under an article on state treason). According to the publication, representatives of a certain federal security and combating corruption project turned to the Russian Prosecutor General of Russia Igor Krasnov. “Bilyk has repeatedly stated that he was out of politics, but his behavior speaks of a desire to sit on two chairs, to be good for ours and yours,” the authors of the next denunciation of Shot (federal project for security and combating corruption are the “spoiler” of the Aleksey Navalny Foundation; its head Vitaly Borodin is known for writing denunciations for Russian media, as well as Russian media, as well as Russian media actors, musicians, politicians and public figures).

In July 2023, the State Duma deputy, United Russia, Mikhail Romanov also asked to check the Beasts group-in particular, proposed to declare its participants “foreign agents”, writes the Petersburg edition of Rotonda. “Given the fact that the main audience of“ animals ”is youth, the further broadcast of their works from Russian concert venues can lead to an increase in extremist sentiments among youth,” the deputy said.

After the video with Roma, Romanov hurried to the DPR with a new comment: he stated that the musician “corrected”. “Everyone can stumble. But the check is still carried out, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will draw conclusions. Maybe just a test on his actions influenced, ”Romanov told Rotunde. He also emphasized that the Petersburg concert of the Beasts, planned on September 1, “now you can not cancel” (on August 6, “animals” should be performed at the VTB Arena in Moscow, on September 1-at Gazprom-Arena in St. Petersburg).

"I have never been a political prostitute"

Roman Bilyk was born in Taganrog in 1977. His father Vitaliy Bilyk is a Ukrainian , worked as a turner at the Taganrog Plant "Red Boeller"; Mother Svetlana - Russian, Prochrevsky tabloid "Komsomolskaya Pravda" wrote that she worked as a taxi driver. In the autobiography “The Sun Behind us”, Roma Beast said that his parents met in Gorlovka (a city in the Donetsk region, now occupied by Russia), when his father came there to work at the mine. Since 2004, the beast has been married to the former model Marina Koroleva (she was born in St. Petersburg), the couple has two daughters of 15 and eight years.

In an interview, the musician said that in childhood he and his mother moved a lot - in addition to Taganrog lived in Donetsk, Druzhkovka, Gorlovka and Mariupole (all this is the Donetsk region of Ukraine). “In childhood, we walked next to the mercury factory in Gorlovka, collected mercury in boxes. If I were a boy there now - I probably would have collected sleeves, ”Roma told the beast magazine “ Rules of Life ” .

In the same interview, he noted that in Mariupol (he spent four years there, from 1989 to 1993; then, when Roma graduated from the ninth grade, the family returned to Taganrog again) he had the first guitar: “In Mariupol, like in any Soviet city, there was a shopping room-“ Electronics ”or“ Sputnik ”, and in it a musical department. I had some kind of savings, my mother added-and we bought a guitar of the Lviv factory of musical instruments. ”

In an interview with journalist Irina Shikhman in 2019, the beast recalled that after his move to Moscow in 2001, Roma’s mother again moved to Mariupol; Then, after the outbreak of war in the region, she moved to Crimean Feodosia, then again to Taganrog, and then again to Feodosia: "And still travels."

In 2001, Roma founded the group "Beasts". Its first producer was composer Alexander Votinsky, who had previously worked with Tatu and their producer Ivan Shapovalov. Later, Roma Beast began to produce the group himself. In the same year, the “animals” released the debut album “Hunger” (the main songs: “Just such strong love”, “Rains-pistols”, “traps”). In 2004, the platform "districts-quarters" with the same hit was released.

In total, the team released eight albums. However, the peak of the popularity of the group came in the middle of the zero. And today, the most popular songs of the group on Spotify-from the albums “Hunger” (2000), “Quarters” (2004), “When we are together, no one is cooler” (2005).

Then, in the middle of the zero, despite the frantic popularity in Russia, Roma Beast settled in Kyiv for a while: in January 2007, he went there for several months to "change the situation and focus on writing new songs." In his autobiography “The Sun Behind us”, he devoted a separate chapter in it for the Ukrainian capital and his period of life:

I really liked that people in Kyiv are quite simple, responsive, it is not very important for them who you are. Due to some special mentality, Kyiv is a little relaxed. It is clear that it is slow, as if a little with a lazy, calm. Here, if the panrabic, then it is incomprehensible. They sincerely do this-if you do so in Moscow, they will think about you that you are some kind of fool. And there it is normal. Wherever you come, you are quite even, without prejudice. Well, sit down at the table. What do you not eat? Are you sick? Do not drink? Are you losing weight? That is, in the same way: what will come to mind is they say.

In 2018, in an interview with Rain, the beast said that after the annexation of Crimea, the group does not appear on the peninsula, “so that there are no questions to them” because of the appearance of “controversial territories”. At the same time, the team continued to give concerts in Kyiv. In Ukraine, then, according to the beast, they reacted positively to their speeches: “Because I cannot be accused of that I am some kind of political prostitute.”

An important milestone in the career of Roma of the beast was the shooting of Kirill Serebrennikov. In 2018, the director, then under house arrest in the case of the Seventh Studio, released the film “Summer” with the beast in the title role: he played the leader of the Zoo group Mike Naumenko. Moreover, the beast and his guitarist German Osipov received the prize of the Cannes festival for the soundtrack for the “summer” (in the video published by the “military commander” the Fegovoy in August 2023, both the beast and Osipov) appear).

Roma Beast supported Serebrennikov when the Russian authorities pursued it, he came to the courts in the case of the Seventh Studio and in an interview with “Real Time” said that he did not believe in the justice of the Russian judicial system:

Because, if you look at the practice of court cases in Russia, we have practically not exclusive verdicts. This is extremely rare, and then under the pressure of society. Our judicial system is forced, and we all know perfectly well. What they say to them, then they do. I do not believe in a fair judicial system in Russia, and no one believes in it.

In 2019, Roma Beast, along with Boris Grebenshchikov, Tatyana Lazareva, Andrei Makarevich and others,recorded a song in front of the “Mother Marsh”, which took place in support of the defendants in the case of “New Greatness”, fabricated by the security forces. In 2020, he participated in a campaign launched by the Gogol Center in support of doctors fighting coronavirus.

Roma Beast also opposed the amendments to the Constitution, which “diverted” Putin's terms. “What did not suit the previous constitution, what was wrong there and why should we now adopt a new constitution? For what reasons, what influences, why does the president want to change it, if he before, 10 years ago and 15 years ago, said that I in no case want to change the constitution? What if she should change sharply, and we are all offered to go through to vote, ”said the beast.

In February 2022, after the start of a full -scale invasion, the Battykhi group published posts in social networks in which she unequivocally condemned the war: “Like all sane people, we are against any hostilities. It is necessary to stop military operations as soon as possible and resolve issues exclusively at the negotiating table. ”

Roma himself spoke out against the invasion of his Instagram. The musician called the war “a terrible tragedy” and called for peace. “Hatred covered everyone, fear and helplessness everywhere,” he wrote and then quoted Leo Tolstoy, ““ War is a madness that makes you doubt the mind of man. ”

Now all the anti -war recordings of the beast are deleted (there is not a single publication in its account at all). On the Instagram page of the group about the performance in the Donbass, nothing is said either.

Some reactions

Journalist of Rain Mikhail Kozyrev, former general producer of our Radio Radio and Maximum radio stations after the beast’s performance in the DPR published on Facebook the news about the group’s trip to Donbass with the commentary downward .

The writer and propagandist Zakhar Prilepin wrote in his telegram channel that “all his life could not endure” the “animals” group-like the group itself, its frontman “enraged” it. However, after Bilyk’s trip, Prilepin “warmed up” to him:

Judging by his last name, he is with a Khokhlyatsky admixture. At the beginning of his, he wrote on the blog that against any war. And now he suddenly showed up in the Donbass. And sings the fighters. And the fighters are glad to him. <...> I want to believe in his sincerity.

“New Gazeta Europe” suggests that the “animals” “exerted obvious psychological pressure”:

From understanding, how Roma was broken, it doesn’t become easier: not every time you can watch how a person who greatly criticized power and propaganda before the war, with masochistic pleasure, becomes part of it.

In social networks, fans of the group publish disappointed posts. One of the students wrote a letter to the group, which ends with the words: “A huge disorder. Please pass on Roma. ”

Kirill Serebrennikov and the leading actors of the Gogol Center have not yet spoke out about the trip of the beast.

What else happened to the group during the war

In the summer of 2022-after the start of the invasion-the "animals" played several large concerts in Russia as part of the tour , dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the group. In September of the same year, in Moscow, after the completion of the tour, the group performed at the plus of the cottage, organized by Yandex (“Guests left the concert not only with emotions, but also with exclusive merchants from the“ Yandex.Music ”with an autograph of the Roma of the Belarm,” wrote The Flow).

In January 2023, the group released the single “Chaika” dedicated to Anton Chekhov, who was born in Taganrog (before that, “animals” had already released a mini-album based on the classic of the classic “Lonely Domestica” ). The lyrics can be called a protest - the consequences of the war are mentioned in an implicit way.

Fragment of the text (there is a mat)

Behind the mousetrap is Mickey Mouse,

Here everyone is broken, but I do not break.

You excuse me to contact you

On you and you.

You don't think cho, Anton Palych,

Waves are not towards you, spite,

Just really got down

What are you on the shield.

For those whom you rolled up by a tank,

For those whose great -grandmothers kicked a chestnut,

Those who are behind your back are on the wounds

They are still those.

You see, Antosha, now in the Moscow Art Theater

Sit fagots in white robes,

They were taken to the ward, of course, according to the blat,

Empire of Evil.

All their fuss is fierce boredom!

And the lady and the dog are called a bitch with a bitch,

I will not give them either a ruble or a hand,

Such things.

At the end of July 2023, Roma Beast appeared in the Lab project of the musician Anton Belyaev, where famous musicians make unexpected covers of songs. The first and second seasons of Lab were supported by the already mentioned Yandex, the third entered the airtime grid of TNT and the Premier online cinema. The fourth season, in which the beast spoke, is released on the VK Video platform.

In the studio of Belyaev, Roma Beast performed the song “About the fool” by Yegor Letov. Many fans of the group perceived this cover as another anti -war gesture of the musician.

And today I bought balloons,

I will fly on them over a clear country,

I will swallow fluff, I will dive into the ground

And answer all questions: "Always alive."

However, before Roma of the beast, during the invasion of the Lab project, artists with a clear anti -war position never performed. The next guest of Belyaev, after the leader of the “Beasts”, was musician Vyacheslav Butusov, who openly supported Russia's attack on a neighboring country.

Sofya Vorobyova