Over the past year in Russia, the security forces have disrupted a series of punk and metal concerts. 35 years after the collapse of the USSR, representatives of subcultures are again persecuted in Russia – those who were previously called “informals”. Concerts are banned and dispersed, songs are censored, and for improper clothes are fined. The police and judges rely on anti-extremist legislation, which is increasingly tightening. Objects of repression are not necessarily young rebellious, sometimes quite loyal to the state of age. The current bans are even tougher than the Soviet ones.
On March 14, the annual Black Metal Festival “Fours of Winter” was held at the Territory Club in Yaroslavl. When the second group came on the stage, about 30 police officers and representatives of other departments, including the FSB, broke into the hall. One of the security forces climbed onto the stage with a machine gun and ordered the musicians to stop playing and lie on the floor.
According to the publication RusNews, eyewitnesses, passports and phones were taken from artists and visitors, women were later released, and the men were stripped and forced to lie on the floor for several hours. The security forces checked their tattoos, some marker “facing” or “fascist” was marked with some marker. “People were kept at the club. Who has tattoos with Baphomet “goad-headed occult symbol – The Insider”, they wrote “fake”. Who has runes – “fascist”, – told The Insider familiar victims, the manager of the metal group Ekaterina (name changed).
One of the participants of the raid introduced himself as a military commissar. The detainees in turn were brought to him and offered to go to war with Ukraine. At the concert was a US citizen – he was forced to confess his love for Russia under the record.
Some men, according to RusNews, were cut off long hair – an ordinary attribute of fans of black metal. According to the interlocutor of The Insider Catherine, someone was cut off his beards: “In the spirit of Peter I.”
Some men were cut off long hair - an ordinary attribute of black metal fans. It was reported that also shaved off the beardsThe official version of the incident was voiced by the pro-Kremlin agency RIA Novosti: “The concert “Funerry of winter” of right-wing radical groups was stopped. The organizer was the Yaroslavl nationalist low-musical group VLSKVLT. Of the 130 participants, 23 were detained.
According to the rock poet and producer Alexander Elin, what is happening reminds him of the late USSR: “I remember how in 1986, when I organized concerts, the cops really considered all rockers fascists. Now the old people quickly remembered how it was in the 80’s.”
Unwanted concerts
The incident in Yaroslavl is the toughest, but not the only overclocking of the concert in Russia in the last year. A month earlier, on February 7, the security forces came to the Moscow club Eclipse for the performance of the black metal group “Naughter”. Ten participants of the event were detained. Official media reported that “the security forces disrupted the party of Satanists.”
“It seems that in the city of Moscow everything is so calm and cloudless that there is absolutely nothing to do in law enforcement agencies. There is no other work, you have to open a “witch hunt” and catch men under 50 under underground rock concerts on the fun of the crowd,” wrote about the incident the guitarist of the popular metal band “Arkon” Sergey “Lazar” Atrashkevich, but then either removed or hid his post.
Many commentators reported that the security forces were going to disrupt a completely different event, but they were mistaken for the door. This version of The Insider was confirmed by the musician Igor (name changed). According to him, in the next hall of the same club had to pass the “Gothic ball”, which they wanted to cover for “advanced LGBT”:
“The ball was canceled in advance by the organizers, and the cops had to fight LGBT, so they dispersed the concert. As a result, this propaganda was prescribed in the protocols, not Satanism. As far as I know, Eclipse has a lot of the organizers beat up. My friend was going to this concert, but a little late. There were already all flashing lights and no one was allowed inside.”Before that, there was a series of raids at punk concerts. On January 6, Moscow police disrupted the Harvest Fest festival at the “MO[TRI]” bar (also known as “Mothyga”). Eyewitnesses said that people were put in person in the floor, checked phones for subscriptions to “undesirable” channels, several visitors were beaten.
In 2025, the security forces three times staged raids at punk concerts in Yekaterinburg. In May, the music festival was disrupted in the Syndrome bar. “Everyone checked the documents, messengers in the phones, tattoos, asked about the attitude to left-wing radical movements, to “SVO””, – reported “OVD-Info”.
In June, the police dispersed another concert in the same institution. In July, with a raid came to the club “New Bar”. Then, together with the police came representatives of the right-wing radical movement “Russian community”. Guests of the event were asked about their attitude to the war with Ukraine and LGBT.
Pankov, apparently, is persecuted not for the appearance, but as potential oppositionists. They were not cut, they did not try to be fined for paraphernalia, but the tattoos were checked. In general, the search for “extremist” tattoos is a relatively new practice that came into use in filtration camps in the occupied regions of Ukraine. When filtering, the tattoo was a critical signal for the security forces, confirmed The Insider one of the lawyers of OVD-Info on condition of anonymity:
“Tabortions began to be carried out point-by-point since the beginning of the war. You can’t punish them – what is the public danger? Under Russian law, liability can only be for public acts, so, in fact, if the tattoo is not visible, there should be no consequences.But this is in theory, and in practice, detainees with improper tattoos are often threatened with criminal prosecution. The manager of the metal group Catherine cites as an example his friends, who were detained at a concert in Yaroslavl: the security forces said that their tattoos are “fascist”, and if they do not bring them together, they face a criminal case.
After the raids at concerts in the subcultural community, fear settled, says Ekaterina: “Before every performance I look from the stage and I do not know what will happen: infuck us or not. In addition, concerts are often not allowed to both us and many other groups now.”
In social networks, fans complain about the cancellation of the concerts “for technical reasons”. Openly and publicly events are forbidden rarely, but this happens. In the spring, two events were banned in Kemerovo at once: after the denunciation of the “Russian community”, the Moldy Fest tribute-fest and the performance of the project 2rbina 2rista were canceled.
The first event is more or less clear. There were to play the songs “Woley Molly”, and this group left Russia after a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But 2rbina 2rista suffered not for the protest, but for the uniform. They play an outrageous alternative hip-hop and take the stage in skeletons makeup. “Their ‘creativity’ is a rattling mixture of mat, violence, and sexual perversions. Such “art” is a direct blow to the psyche of our children and an attempt to destroy our cultural code,” the Russian Community said. The regional authorities supported the informers.
Forbidden words
There are rules of the game for musicians, and they are very strict. On March 1, a new version of the law on drug propaganda came into force, and now any mention of prohibited substances can be considered such. Publishers and artists remove from streaming or rewrite “wrong” songs, simultaneously getting rid of references to Satan and same-sex relationships.
Everyone has to adapt to the metal scene. The texts rule and censor, and this is done by both long-standing provocateurs like “Metal Corrosion”, and classics-conformists like “Aria”. The author of the lyrics for the latter Alexander Elin says that this group now receives many denunciations:
“They have long been playing ordinary heroics – a normal theme for heavy metal. No pacifism from the first albums. If you look at the playlists of the last concerts, there are no songs with the mention of the Antichrist and the devil. The song “Angelian Dust” is not sung, because it’s about drugs.”Under the restrictions fall and “peaceful” songs, and those where they are sung about all sorts of bloody events. In 2025, a concert with Beatles covers was held in St. Petersburg, and the organizers banned from performing Imagine and All you need love, says one of the interlocutors of The Insider. But black metal gets especially hard, says the group’s manager Ekaterina: “They sing about death, blood, intestines and dismemberment. It seems to me that many in the government see these words references to the war with Ukraine.
“They sing about death, blood, guts and dismemberment. It seems to me that many in the government see this as reference to the war with Ukraine.In the Soviet Union, too, there was censorship of texts, but it was much more flexible. The Houses of amateur creativity worked, where the musicians could come and explain that the content of the song does not violate anything. It’s not possible today.
“Many of my comrades, who played in the Soviet years, remember that there were special aunts that you could tell that your song with the mention of heroin is about the fight against the drug mafia. Now it does not work, – says Ekaterina. – The festival “Rock against drugs” is impossible in principle. Sing about heroin – there will be a criminal punishment. No one cares about the semantics. Same with “Satanism.” And the state does not care that the plots are taken from the Bible, and the musicians are baptized and religious people.
Sergey World, the author of the texts “Time Machines” and “Secret”, as well as books on the history of Russian rock, is also sure that the current bans are tougher than the Soviet ones, and the flexibility from the system was removed intentionally:
“In the USSR, you could use the music of the Beatles in the cartoon, bad guys in “Puck! The puck!” It could be explained that the youth revolt was about how badly lives in the capitalist countries. But now the authorities have learned the law of PR, that any mention is good. And as Putin has never named Navalny, some topics cannot be raised in songs, regardless of the context.At the same time, from the bans, cancellation of the tour of foreign musicians and the departure of opposition artists, some performers only won, adds Alexander Elin. He cites the example of the Radio Tapok project, which performs metal, “openly zigna and perfectly gathers the audience at his concerts”: “If a person with long hair and a tattoo comes to Radio Tapok, he is not in danger. And at another event, he can be beaten, shaved, bullied.”
The Satan Jacket
Metalists can not be called a frankly protest audience. Among the visitors of the “Funerry of Winter” in Yaroslavl, for example, were a police officer and an employee of Regardie. According to Alexander Elin, many grown-up fans of heavy music have made a career on the state line and can even cover their favorite artists from persecution. However, their appearance and attributes have become a source of danger. Fans of metal is easier at an age: because of long hair, they are “taken for fathers,” says Ekaterina. To young representatives of the subculture, the police cling to the young representatives of the subculture more often.
People began to think about how to dress now, says The Insider musician Igor: “In subcultural chats they wrote how a person in Moscow was stopped either on the street, or in the metro for the sword Slayer “symbolism of the group replete with references to both the occult and to Nazi Germany – The Insider” and was fined. Everyone is in shock.”
Another musician, Dmitry (name changed), told The Insider that in April 2025 he was forcibly cut off in the police station. In the yard of the house in Moscow, he was attacked by a drunk man. Dmitry fought back and injured the attacker, after which he was detained. The editors have voice messages at their disposal, where the musician describes the incident: “From*** or to bloody snot and embellished with a car. The cop rested with his knee, took the hair and let’s shave.”
Often, stories about people who were punished for the “wrong” subcultural paraphernament fall into the media and social networks. In September, in Zelenograd, 19-year-old Elina G. was fined under the article on “demonstration of extremist symbols”. The police detained the girl for drawings on a jacket and a bag: a pentagram and completely unknown to the general public “the cross of Leviathan”. The judges considered that this is one of the signs of the “church of Satan”, which in Russia is considered an extremist association. At the trial, Elina admitted that she painted her clothes, as she listens to heavy music, but she has nothing to do with Satanism. As a result, the girl was issued a fine, and her belongings were confiscated.
In November in St. Petersburg arrested for 12 days cosplayer Artem Repin. He came to the the thematic festival “Necrocomicon”, holding a glass and a book with the image of a pentagram and the inscription “Satanine rituals”.
In mid-April 2026, a resident of Severodvinsk, Alexei K., was fined 1000 rubles for a pentagram and an image of Bafomet on a hoodie and pants. In this form, a 22-year-old man came to the prosecutor’s office, for which he was punished. In official reports, they again wrote about the “international movement of Satanism, banned on the territory of the Russian Federation.”
Even if we leave behind the navigability of the prohibition of “satanism” in itself, most of the detained and arrested representatives of the subcultures have nothing to do with these religious practices. According to the musician Igor, the police and judges themselves do not believe this: “Everyone understands perfectly well that no one eats children and does not rape goats. He does not perform any rituals. It’s just that young and not very people listen to certain music and go to concerts. I think this is a normal fight against dissent. Trying to cut everyone under one comb.”