Defying police censorship and the threat of repression, hundreds of young Russians gathered in St. Petersburg’s Kazanskaya Square Oct. 14 to sing an outlawed song calling for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be overthrown. They joined street musicians on Nevsky Prospect to perform “Cooperative Swan Lake,” a song a court there banned as “extremist.”
Written by pro-Ukraine rapper Noize MC, the song mimics the practice of the Stalinist leaders of the Soviet era playing Swan Lake to cover up political turmoil. It has become an unofficial anthem for opponents of the Putin regime’s wars and repression.
The St. Petersburg court ruled the song was “propaganda for violent change of the foundations of the constitutional order,” harmful to “morals.” The Kremlin branded the rapper a “foreign agent.”
The song’s title refers to Lake Cooperative in northwest Russia where Putin’s inner circle gathers for holidays. The lyrics, in an obvious reference to Putin, say, “Let the old man shake in fear for his lake.” Noize MC, whose real name is Ivan Alexeyev, fled to Lithuania in 2022 after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but he keeps releasing music supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and memorializing opposition fighters against Putin’s rule. Although banned in Russia, his songs circulate widely on the internet, with millions of listeners.
Police say they have arrested one of the singers.