Oxxxymiron will pay for his performance – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

A court in St. Petersburg found Oxxxymiron (Miron Fedorov, recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent) guilty of an administrative offense under Part 2 of Art. 20.3.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and ordered him to pay a fine of 70 thousand rubles. Representatives of the prosecutor’s office of the city heard a call for the separation of part of the country in his track “Oida”. According to lawyers, the rapper may face criminal liability for repeated administrative violations.

Checking the work of Miron Fedorov began at the end of October. The Safe Internet League, headed by Ekaterina Mizulina, sent an appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a request to check the Oida track for signs of extremism. Ms. Mizulina saw calls in the song to separate St. Petersburg from Russia, and also considered it necessary to check the rapper himself for involvement in and organization of “extremist activities to split Russia on the basis of an interethnic theme.”

In early December, the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg registered an administrative lawsuit filed by the prosecutor of the Admiralteisky district against the singer, Yandex, the social network VKontakte and the streaming service Zvuk demanding that the above track be banned from distribution. A preliminary court hearing to ban the composition took place on January 9. During the consideration of the case, it became known that streaming services cannot be defendants. The next preliminary hearing in this case will be held on February 7, so the clip will be in the public domain for another month.

And today, the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg began considering a case related to calls for separatism under Part 2 of Art. 20.3.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The video for the song “Oida”, which caused the persecution of the musician, was filmed in St. Petersburg and posted on the rapper’s page on the VKontakte social network on September 16, 2022. A representative of the prosecutor’s office informed the court that the violation had been discovered on 28 September.

In early December, the Leninsky District Court of St. Petersburg fined the rapper 45,000 rubles. for discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation under Part 1 of Art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. He received a fine for a video in which he explained why he opposes Russia’s actions. On October 7, 2022, the Ministry of Justice entered the rapper into the register of individuals-foreign agents. In addition, in October, the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow recognized the text of the track “The Last Call” as extremist material. The rapper returned to Russia when the video for the song “Oida” was filmed, but now, apparently, he is again outside of Russia.

Which lines of the performer are calling for the division of the country, neither the prosecutor nor the judge said. Previously, experts from St. Petersburg State University held study and concluded that the track contains phrases calling for “certain actions, as a result of which there may be a violation of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.”

Experts refer to the line about “rebuilding the house” (of the country) and to the phrase “Ingria will be free” (Ingria, also known as Ingermanlandia, is a historical region on the territory of modern Russia, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region).

In their opinion, this is how the artist “demonstrates a public positive attitude towards the separation of part of the country.”

As a result, the Oktyabrsky District Court fined the rapper 70 thousand rubles. The artist has ten days to appeal the court decision after receiving the court order. Neither the artist nor his representatives were present at the meeting.

“If tomorrow Miron Fedorov again posts a video for the same song or performs it at concerts, then our law enforcement system can qualify this as a repeated administrative offense,” Andrey, chairman of the human rights commission under the council of the St. Chertkov. Earlier, the lawyer noted that this article forms an administrative prejudice, which in the future threatens to bring the artist to criminal liability under Art. 280.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for the repeated commission of the same administrative violation. The punishment in this case will be up to five years in prison.

Nadezhda Yarmula, St. Petersburg