The police will not pay for the Anacondaz concert – Newspaper Kommersant No. 5 (7450) of 01/13/2023

The Arbitration Court of the Perm Territory presented a decision on the claim of LLC Invisible Promo, the official organizer of the concert tours of the rock band Anacondaz, for the recovery of damages in the amount of 255 thousand rubles. with the Ministry of Internal Affairs for disrupting a concert in Perm last summer. The musicians called the actions of the police illegal. However, the court considered that the evacuation of spectators from the premises of the club was justified by fire regulations. In addition, the court took into account the fact that the time of the concert was announced from 19:00 for one hour, and the artists began their performance only at 20:00, 20 minutes before the evacuation. Consequently, they had the opportunity to fulfill the terms of the contract with the tour organizer.

The Anacondaz concert was scheduled in Perm on July 23 at the MICHURIN concert club. After the fourth song, he was interrupted by officers of the police department No. 1 of the city department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and demanded that the audience and artists leave the premises.

Created in Astrakhan in 2009, the rap-rock band Anacondaz gained fame thanks to outrageous videos and ironic lyrics. The members of Anacondaz condemned the military special operation in Ukraine, after which the group began to have problems with the cancellation of concerts throughout the country.

Tour organizer Anacondaz, stating that the concert in Perm was not completed, refused to pay remuneration to the band. The group decided to recover the resulting losses from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the end of August, the Invisible Promo company filed a corresponding claim with the Arbitration Court of the Perm Territory. A similar lawsuit by Anacondaz was also considered in Yekaterinburg, where the authorities and the police canceled two concerts of the group scheduled for the summer. The claim was rejected.

LLC “Invisible Promo” in arbitration demanded the recovery of losses incurred in connection with the illegal actions of law enforcement agencies in the amount of 255 thousand rubles. As such, the plaintiff considered interference in the holding of the Anacondaz concert. The amount included in the lawsuit corresponded to the remuneration of artists “for the performance of musical works lasting at least one hour, but not more than one and a half hours.” The group could not fulfill the terms of the contract: the concert was interrupted by the police department, at the request of which the musicians and the audience left the MICHURIN club.

In the MICHURIN club at the Anacondaz concert, the defendants insisted, the normative number of spectators who could be in the hall at the same time was exceeded, which is contrary to the rules of the fire regime in the Russian Federation. “The room where the concert was held was overcrowded with visitors, there was practically no air for normal breathing, movement around the hall was difficult,” follows from the case file. m. According to the representative of the group, the concert was attended by about 320 people. Therefore, “in order to prevent an emergency situation, the staff of the regiment of the PPSP of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Perm organized the evacuation of citizens from this club.”

The court recognized the actions of law enforcement agencies as justified and did not find grounds for declaring them illegal. In addition, the judge found unfounded the plaintiff’s argument that the terms of the contract were not fulfilled by him due to circumstances beyond his control.

After questioning the witnesses, the court came to the conclusion that the beginning of the concert, judging by the tickets sold, was scheduled for 19:00, but in fact the artists began their performance only at 20:00. The evacuation of spectators began at 20:20. Thus, the group had the opportunity to perform the contract. “Given the foregoing, in the case under consideration there is no guilty behavior of law enforcement officers and a causal relationship between the actions of officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the damage to the plaintiff, and therefore there are no grounds for imposing on the Russian Federation, procedurally represented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, liability to the plaintiff for damages not available,” the court concluded.

Irina Sukhanova, Perm