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Musician Alla Pugacheva, who is currently abroad, has criticized the Kremlin for its actions in Ukraine.
Russian prosecutors have asked the Justice Ministry to consider labeling Soviet pop music queen Alla Pugacheva as a “foreign agent,” Reuters news agency reports.
If successful, the move would officially designate Russia's most famous star as an enemy of the Kremlin.
Pugacheva, known to generations for her hits such as the 1982 song, Million Scarlet Roses and the 1978 film, The Woman Who Sings, has expressed disgust at the Ukraine war.
He said the war in 2022 was killing soldiers for illusory purposes, burdening Russian citizens and making Russia untouchable.
Earlier this month, the 74-year-old had said that no normal person would return to Russia. He is currently abroad.
Vitaly Borodin, an activist who heads an anti-corruption group and who regularly appears on state television, has submitted an official request to recognize Pugacheva as a foreign agent.
Borodin then published a letter from the Prosecutor General's Office showing that the Justice Ministry had been requested to consider it, Reuters reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had not heard any official statement on the issue. Pugacheva, who is believed to be in Cyprus, did not immediately comment.
'Tina Turner of Moscow'
Formally labeling Pugacheva a “international agent” would underscore the rift between the Kremlin and lots of – however not all – cultural icons of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia over Ukraine.
Such a transfer would definitely require approval from the Kremlin. There isn’t any public opinion in regards to the singer but and this may occasionally nonetheless put a halt to the method.
In 2000 the New York Instances described her as “the goddess of Russian pop, Moscow's Tina Turner with a contact of Edith Piaf, whose songs have given voice to the yearnings of tens of millions”.
Shot, a Russian media outlet with shut ties to the safety providers, mentioned an official announcement could possibly be made on April 15, his seventy fifth birthday.
Being labeled a “international agent” is usually the primary signal of great hassle from authorities in Russia. Thus 787 organizations and individuals are listed.
The label has destructive Soviet-era connotations and requires its holders to position it prominently on all materials they publish. Additionally they face tough monetary and bureaucratic necessities.
Nevertheless, for a lot of opponents of President Vladimir Putin, the designation is taken into account a badge of honor – proof that they stood up towards a frontrunner they solid as a dictator and say has ruined Russia. Has led to destruction.
Criticism
Putin's supporters say the pro-Western cultural elite that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 is being eliminated and changed with patriotic singers, writers and artists who will be sure that Russia stays sovereign.
Pugacheva got here to the eye of Putin supporters for taking six days to remark publicly following Friday's gun assault on the Crocus Metropolis Corridor.
“Grief must be in your soul, not on Instagram,” she posted on Instagram Thursday.
Pugacheva was additionally criticized for apologizing to a Tajik singer who cried over the “public torture” of Tajik suspects detained for the assault.
Some suspects have been proven being interrogated on a roadside. Unverified footage exhibits a part of a person's ear being lower off and stuffed into his mouth.
In 2022 Pugacheva additionally requested the state to label her a international agent in solidarity together with her husband, TV comic Maxim Galkin, who was positioned on the listing that yr.
Pugacheva has previously been welcomed by each Putin and his predecessor Boris Yeltsin. When Mikhail Gorbachev died in 2022, he praised the final Soviet chief for permitting freedom and rejecting violence.
After Putin ordered troops to be despatched to Ukraine in 2022, Pugacheva left Russia. She has Israeli citizenship and has returned for a while.