What did Prusikin do?
A new scandal erupted after the Instagram post of Ilya Prusikin, the leader of the St. Petersburg group Little Big (the owner of Meta is recognized and banned in Russia as an extremist).
The musician, dressed as a priest, rides a catholic cross skateboard in the video he posted. This is evidenced by the coloratka or “Roman collar”, the distinctive white stripe on a black collar worn by Catholic priests.
The video and separate photo post released on January 7 appear to be the trailer for Little Big’s new music video. The image itself was obviously filmed in the United States, where Prusikin, along with vocalist Sofia Tayurskaya and several other members of her team, moved after the start of the Russian military special operation in Ukraine.
At the time of this writing, Prusikin’s two posts on Instagram received a total of approximately 42 thousand likes and 4.3 thousand comments. The number of the latter is tens of times more than the usual number of comments under the musician’s posts.
How did they react on the Internet?
Some subscribers of the musician came out with harsh criticism about the crucifixion. Others, on the contrary, did not see it as blasphemy.
“Why didn’t you ride on December 25? In America, it would be more relevant. Or you don’t want to offend anyone there, ”one of the subscribers asked, alluding to the Catholic Christmas celebrated on December 25.
A user named Svetlana views Prusikin’s antics as the “bottom”, as both Orthodox and Catholics are Christians. “I’m usually an atheist, but I still don’t understand why I’m doing this,” the girl wrote.
“A very stupid move to offend those he has abandoned in search of a better life. They may be interested in creativity, but such a move can ruin everything, ”wrote a user named Elena.
And another subscriber hinted that all criticism of the Little Big lead singer was insincere. “God, how choked I am in the comments,” she wrote.
“Ilyich, watch believers for free with registration via VPN,” Evgeny wrote.
“If this bothers someone, then you should consider the inviolability of your inner belief. Apparently for some kind of flimsy design, ”said Natalia.
Some Instagram users asked why Prusikin posted posts on the Orthodox Christmas day instead of the Muslim holy month.
“Are you going to confuse the same thing in Ramadan, Ilyus? Or does your PATEST work in one direction?” the subscriber asked the musician. “Get on a wooden crescent dressed as a mullah like this in Ramadan and how ‘fun’ it looks afterwards. As a believer, it is not possible to offend my feelings, but for whom are these difficulties, and for what purpose? are you working? — wrote another user of the social network.
Some also suggested that some or all of the negative comments were the result of bots.
What did they say offline
The discussion of frames with Prusikin and the cross went beyond social networks. At the request of journalists, St. Archbishop Dimitry Lin, rector of Theodore the Studite church, reacted to the video at the request of journalists.
“If he is an Orthodox Christian by baptism, I urge him to repent. If not, then there is no question of repentance. He’d better apologize,” said the cleric. Lin added that the musician desecrated Christian symbols, which in Russia carries criminal penalties.
State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov expressed the opinion that the soloist of Little Big published a skateboarding video not of his own accord, but at the behest of the West.
“Prusikin is not stupid, he is an opportunist, he knows the Western conjuncture very well. Relatively speaking, those who are the “customers” of his work and political antics are those who have decided not to follow the tradition of the Christmas truce. They are the ones who decided to continue the bombardment despite the proposals of the parliamentarian, Patriarch Kirill and Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
Milonov also described Prusikin as a coward for leaving Russia and a scoundrel for “saying bad things” after that. According to the MP, the musician may do “worse things” in the future to please Western “customers”. At the same time, the parliamentarian did not deny Prusikin’s talent, but considered “his pride killed him.”
However, not all artists reacted negatively to Prusikin’s publications – Nikita Presnyakov, granddaughter of Alla Pugacheva, actor Maxim Vitorgan and rapper Morgenstern (known in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent) put likes under the posts.