Yuri Chevtchouk, sacred monster of Russian rock, was sentenced Tuesday August 16 to a fine in Russia for having denounced the offensive against Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin during a concert.
A court in Ufa (central Russia) found the singer guilty of“public action intended to discredit the use of Russian armed forces” and sentenced him to a fine of 50,000 rubles (about 800 euros), the court’s press service said in a statement.
On May 18, in front of his audience, in Oufa, the 65-year-old singer hammered home that “the fatherland is not to be the permanent ass-licker of the president”, according to videos posted online. “Now people are being killed in Ukraine, why? Our guys are dying in Ukraine, why?” he launched to the crowd, lamenting “the young people of Ukraine and Russia who are dying (…) because of the Napoleonic plans of our Caesar”.
If Yuri Chevtchouk was sentenced to a fine, Russian criminal law provides for such offenses penalties of up to five years in prison in the event of recidivism and aggravating circumstances.
The singer, who did not attend his hearing due to a quarantine related to the coronavirus, transmitted a written declaration via his lawyer Alexandre Peredrouk, in which he underlined “have always been against war, in any country and at any time”. And to insist: “All problems and all difficulties of a political nature between countries and peoples must be settled through diplomatic channels”.
Leader of the rock group DDT, very famous in the former USSR, Chevtchouk has denounced Vladimir Putin’s influence over the years, even calling out to him in 2010 during a meeting broadcast on television. He was also one of leaders of a vast protest movement in Russia in 2011-2012, which was suppressed by the Kremlin.
Before the Putin era, Yuri Shevtchouk distinguished himself through his campaign against the first Chechen war, between 1994 and 1996. He began his career in the 1980s, the last decade of the USSR, gaining popularity thanks to his anti-system songs in this crisis-ridden empire. When the USSR fell in 1991, Chevtchouk was already a figure in Russian rock.