At the request of the prosecutor’s office in Yaroslavl, the “Naive” concert was canceled

In Yaroslavl, the concert of the “Naive” group was canceled at the request of the prosecutor’s office. This also led to the cancellation of the group’s performance in Cherepovets, the Live Concerts concert agency reported.

The performance in Cherepovets was supposed to take place on April 8, in Yaroslavl – on April 9.

“Today, we received a warning letter from the prosecutor’s office of the city of Yaroslavl about the impossibility of holding the concert. The initiator of the cancellation is the deputy of the municipality – Lyubov Surova. Since the economy of the Yaroslavl show is inextricably linked with the economy of the event in Cherepovets, a difficult decision was made to cancel the common link Yaroslavl-Cherepovets”, – says the statement of the agency, which is quoted by Sever.Realii.

On April 4, Deputy Surova wrote in her Telegram channel that she was approached with mourning for the group’s upcoming concert at the Yaroslavl club “Chinese Pilot Zhao Da”.

“The voters sent me a video with public anti-Russian and pro-Ukrainian statements of the leader of this so-called “musical group” Alexander Ivanov. And I completely share their indignation. Perhaps law enforcement agencies have not yet given a legal assessment to Ivanov’s statements. But there is such a concept – “ideological subversion”” , – says Surova’s post.

The frontman of the group “Naive” Alexander Ivanov left Russia for the USA about 10 years ago. He spends most of his time there. The “Naive” group together with Ivanov continued to give concerts in Russia. In March 2022, after the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ivanov made a statement that he would suspend participation in all projects. He spoke out against the war in Ukraine and recorded a video appeal to President Vladimir Putin demanding an end to hostilities in Ukraine.

• After the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia began to cancel the concerts of performers who opposed the war or criticized the Russian authorities. It was also reported that concert agencies began to include clauses in contracts with Russian artists that prohibit them from making political statements from the stage.
• In St. Petersburg, concerts of several performers were canceled at the “Otlichnyy FEST” festival – musical groups Anacondaz and “Kys-Kys” and performers Dora and Alena Shvets. The concerts of the conductor Vasily Sinaisky, who condemned the war on February 28, and the singer Manizha, who represented Russia at Eurovision, were also canceled.
• In St. Petersburg, the performance of the pianist Polina Osetynskaya was canceled, in Svetlogorsk – the concert of the group “Splyn”.
• Concerts of the St. Petersburg rock group “Night Snipers” were canceled in six cities of Russia. A denunciation was written against the group’s soloist Diana Arbenina because of her anti-war stance.
• There were reports of numerous cancellations and postponements of the “Time Machine” and “DDT” groups’ concerts.
• Many famous musicians left Russia after the war.