SAINT PETERSBURG: Supporters of an 18-year-old Russian street musician arrested after performing anti-war songs in public expressed frustration at the legal case against her as she attended court on Tuesday.
Diana Loginova, known by the stage name Naoko, was fined 30,000 rubles ($400) by a Saint Petersburg court on Tuesday for “discrediting the army” through her performance of an anti-war song by banned Russian artist Monetochka.
Since her arrest, a flurry of videos in support of Naoko and her band Stoptime have flooded TikTok, while other young street performers have expressed solidarity with her in public, despite the risks of fines or jail sentences themselves.
Before that, she and two other band members were jailed for around two weeks each for organizing an unlawful “mass gathering” in connection with one of her performances outside a Saint Petersburg metro station.
Videos published on social media have shown her performing the songs in front of dozens of people, a rare display of dissent in a country where anti-war protest is forbidden.
