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ST PETERSBURG: A teenage Russian street musician was jailed for 13 days on Thursday after she played a banned anti-Kremlin song on St. Petersburg’s central avenue.
Diana Loginova, an 18-year-old music student who performs under the name Naoko with her band Stoptime, was arrested on Wednesday after her performance of the popular song “Swan Lake Cooperative” by exiled Russian rapper Noize MC went viral on Russian social media.
A video showed a crowd of youngsters singing along with Loginova in a rare show of public defiance of the authorities, given the risk of arrest.
A St. Petersburg court found her guilty on Thursday of organizing an unplanned gathering that blocked public access to the metro — an administrative, as opposed to criminal, offense.
City police said after serving the 13 days, Loginova would be charged with an additional administrative offense of “discrediting” the Russian military.
If convicted, she could face a fine. Any subsequent re-offense could lead to criminal charges and a long prison term.
Noize MC, the musician who wrote “Swan Lake Cooperative” and whose real name is Ivan Alexeyev, is openly critical of the Kremlin and left Russia for Lithuania after the start of the war in Ukraine.
Moscow has added him to its list of “foreign agents,” which comprises hundreds of individuals and entities accused of conducting subversive activity with support from abroad.
Video posted online shows Loginova performing the song on St. Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospekt earlier this week as onlookers chant the lyrics: “I want to watch the ballet, let the swans dance. Let the old man shake in fear for his lake.”
The song does not name President Vladimir Putin or mention the Ukraine war. The ballet reference is to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, which was played on television after the deaths of Soviet leaders and during a 1991 coup attempt against President Mikhail Gorbachev, to the point where it came to symbolize the end of a leader’s rule.
The lyrics also refer to Ozero (Russian for “lake“), a dacha cooperative north of St. Petersburg that is associated with Putin’s inner circle.
In May, a St. Petersburg court banned the song on the grounds it “may contain signs of justification and excuse for hostile, hateful attitudes toward people, as well as statements promoting violent changes to the foundations of the constitutional order.”
While links to “Swan Lake Cooperative” on YouTube and Noize MC’s website are blocked inside Russia, many young people use virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent such bans.
Loginova, who studies at a music college in St. Petersburg, has won multiple student music prizes in Russia and abroad.

LOS ANGELES, USA: Los Angeles County was under a state of emergency Wednesday, declared over federal immigration raids, in the latest effort to push back on President Donald Trump’s hard-line policies.
The declaration, which is usually issued in times of natural disaster, frees up resources that can be used to help those affected in the county, home to a large number of undocumented migrants and one of the most diverse parts of the United States.
Supporters of the move say broad-based migrant raids being carried out by masked agents are untargeted and focused on people who speak Spanish or appear to be Hispanic.
They claim the fear the raids cause is preventing breadwinners from going to work and creating genuine hardship in immigrant communities, with one recent survey finding average weekly earnings among immigrants down by over 60 percent.
Janice Hahn, one of the county supervisors who voted 4-1 in favor of the declaration on Tuesday, said it was needed in response to “the fear, the pain and the disorder these... raids are causing our community.”
“We have entire families who are destitute because their fathers or mothers were taken from their workplaces.
“I want our immigrant communities to know that we are in this emergency with them, we see them and we understand what they are going through.”
Raids by armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, as well as other officials from agencies under the Department of Homeland Security, sparked uproar in Los Angeles when they unfolded several months ago.
Weeks of unruly protests were met by Trump’s decision to send National Guard soldiers onto the streets of America’s second largest city, a move criticized as heavy-handed and inflammatory by critics.
The raids have spread to other, mostly Democratic-run cities, including Chicago and Portland, Oregon, where the federal government has also tried to send National Guard troops.
Tuesday’s decision by county supervisors opens the door to a later eviction moratorium and other tenant protections for those who have fallen behind on their rent because of the raids.
Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger said she was voting against the proclamation because she feared it would simply prompt costly legal action from the federal government.
“We need real solutions, not symbolic gestures,” she said in a statement after the vote.
“I’ll continue to support targeted, community-centered programs like legal aid and rental assistance that provide meaningful help to vulnerable families while respecting legal limits, protecting County resources, and preserving public trust.”