The Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Crimea rejected the application for Russian citizenship of 34-year-old Ukrainian Olga Valeeva, finalist of the Beauty Queen of Crimea contest. In October, the court found a resident of Simferopol guilty of discrediting the RF Armed Forces and publicly displaying prohibited symbols. ), which the Ministry of Internal Affairs called “the anthem of an extremist organization.” While the composition is not included in the federal list of extremist materials of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
The department said that this is the basis for rejecting applications on admission to citizenship.
Valeeva and her friend were detained by employees of the Center for Countering Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Republic of Crimea with the assistance of employees of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for Simferopol and the regional department of the FSB in October.
The court brought both song performers to administrative punishment: Valeeva was fined 40 thousand rubles, her friend was arrested for 10 days.
After the incident, the Crimean State Council sent an appeal to Ministry of Internal Affairs with a request to recognize the song “Chervona Kalina” as extremist. The chairman of the parliamentary committee on culture and the protection of cultural heritage, Nikolai Volkov, called the composition “a song of butchers and criminals” and demanded that its performance be punished “to the fullest”, up to imprisonment.
“An answer came from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. You can’t sing this song. This is a violation of the law,” Volkov told KP-Krym. ) and the UPA (the organization is banned in Russia), which are recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation. Therefore, the composition, as well as the organizations with which it is associated, is also banned in the country, the department explained.
“I didn’t know that this song was connected with something”
After the accusations, Valeeva and her friend publicly apologized and stated that they did not want to promote anything and performed the song without malicious intent.
According to Valeeva, the video ” literally hung for two minutes, “until she saw and asked her friend to delete it, but someone managed to make a record and distributed it on social networks.
” If I knew what this song means, as it turned out, do you think I would suffer this nonsense? I didn’t know, ”she emphasized.
Chervona Kalina was removed from Yandex.Music
On November 9, the Yandex.Music service removed the song “Chervona Kalina” performed by the Ukrainian choir.
The technical support of the service explained to the Baza Telegram channel that the song was blocked after Roskomnadzor “sent a notification to all music platforms about the need to restrict access to this track”. At the same time, “Chervona Kalina” performed by Alexander Malinin and several covers of the song are still available on Yandex.Music.
“The service received an official request from Roskomnadzor to restrict access to this track. According to the law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection”, Yandex.Music is obliged to comply with such requirements within 24 hours, ”a Yandex representative told RBC.
The song “Chervona Kalina” was written in 1914 by the poet and theater director Stepan Charnetsky for a play about Hetman Doroshenko. It is based on a folk melody. The composition became a march of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. After the start of the Russian military operation, “Chervona Kalina” gained popularity in Ukraine, especially among the military.
In September, six residents of Crimea were brought to administrative responsibility for playing “Chervona Kalina” at a wedding in a restaurant . They were found guilty of promoting or publicly displaying Nazi paraphernalia or symbols and discrediting the Russian army.