Venues and police have shut down shows throughout the country while the opposition leader languishes in prison.Alexei NavalnyRock singer Ivan Alexeyev, known by his stage name, says a major venue, Moscow’s VTB Arena, canceled a headline show scheduled for November. Police in Orenburg, in south-western Russia near the border with Kazakhstan, disrupted another show, on April 30, the singer says.
Police and Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, “are intimidating owners of regional venues that are supposed to host our shows," Noize MC says."The situation differs from city to city. Sometimes we still manage to hold the shows or promptly move them to other venues."But the police and FSB have also blocked the entrance to venues, the singer says. That was the case on April 30 in Orenburg, where the band booked two shows at two venues on the same day.
In Russia, where live shows have historically been musicians' main source of income — as opposed to CD sales and, more recently, streaming — show cancellations could deal a serious financial blow to artists., says recent show cancellations set his band back roughly $100,000. Noize MC says it's too early to discuss financial losses as he still hopes to play all scheduled shows at one venue or another.
Venues canceled Nogu Svelo’s eight-date Siberian tour and a May 9 show in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. Initially, local authorities informed the band’s promoters that the COVID-19 pandemic had led to the cancellations. “But it soon became clear that the true reason was our political stand," Pokrovsky tells, adding that local authorities had apparently followed orders from the central government.
Specifically, the Ural Cultural Center in Yekaterinburg told him that his participation in the April 21 rally in support of Navalny was the reason for the cancellation, he says. The venue said the city government made the decision. “Then there was information that there was an order from the president's office,” Pokrovsky says. “We can't comment on this information or verify it, but we believe it's true.
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