In Moscow, an 18-year-old battle rapper was sentenced to a real prison term in the case of inciting hatred towards Russians during a performance

The Butyrsky District Court of Moscow sentenced one year and eight months in a general regime colony to 18-year-old resident of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, battle rapper Islam Zakirov. This was reported by the joint press service of the capital's courts and the Moscow prosecutor's office .

Zakirov, who performed under the pseudonym Relapse, was found guilty of inciting hatred (clause “a” of Part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code). According to the prosecution, on November 18, 2023, the rapper in one of the bars in Yakushkin Passage “publicly announced a statement containing calls for violent action, a negative assessment and a negative attitude towards Russians.” The prosecutor's office insisted that Zakirov “knowingly knew” that the video of his performance would be published on YouTube.

We are talking about Zakirov’s performance at the Moscow battle platform BRP Battle. Right-wing public pages and publications, including Readovka and Mnogonational , published an excerpt with the rapper’s punchline: “I’m fucking a pregnant Russian - this is a preemptive strike. I really don’t give a fuck, because I’m a young Kyrgyz, I drink kumys.”

Together with Zakirov, the public distributed an excerpt from the performance of another battle rapper Sheraph'gun Sharipov at the Moscow site "MC Cup". “I can’t understand, what kind of hairstyle is this? It seems like you weren’t going to shoot my cigarette, but I don’t mind scalping you anymore,” he told his opponent with long hair.

Battle rap venues removed recordings of both performances. The Telegram channel “That Punch” wrote that it was receiving threats. Other platforms also began to hide videos of performances on YouTube channels. The Investigative Committee reported on the initiation of criminal cases against Sharipov and Zakirov on December 17 last year. The latter apologized on camera “to the Russian nation” - the video was filmed by security forces in an official car, and was posted by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.