The prosecutor's office demanded that the lead singer of the band Lumen be fined because of the song "State"

The Moscow prosecutor's office demanded that the lead singer of the Lumen group, Rustem Bulatov, be held administratively liable because of the lyrics of the song "State" - they saw it as "inciting hatred towards a social group using the Internet." Msk1 writes about this with reference to court documents.

The lyrics of the song, to which the prosecutor's office of the Cheryomushkinsky district had complaints, were posted on the website Genius.com. The deputy prosecutor insisted that Bulatov should be prosecuted under Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which implies a fine of 10 to 20 thousand rubles or arrest for up to 15 days.

On the website of the Moscow courts, the card for Bulatov’s case indicates that it was considered on May 14. As a result, the court decided to return the protocol to the prosecutor's office, since the musician was not properly notified about it.

Bulatov himself came to the meeting; he did not admit his guilt. He told Msk1 that “there was no problem.” “The complaints were not against me, but against the Genius website, where the text was posted,” Bulatov clarified. According to him, he does not know whether the prosecutor's office will again try to bring him to administrative responsibility. “She doesn’t report to me. Why did you have questions about the text? That’s also a question for the prosecutor’s office,” said the musician.

The lyrics of the song on the Genius website have now been removed, notes Msk1. Bulatov refused to answer the question whether there was a ban on performing the song, saying that he does not comment on this topic.

• The song “State” by the Ufa band Lumen from the 2005 album “Freedom” is famous for its refrain “I love my country so much, but I hate the state.” After the outbreak of war in 2022, the Lumen group remained in Russia. Regarding the war, its leader spoke like this: “We have our own, third point of view on all this, because what is happening in Ukraine did not begin on February 24. This started in 2014. <…> But, to our great surprise, <…> a huge number of people in our country and, what is most surprising, a huge number of Ukrainians simply did not notice this conflict.”