The Armenian cultural center Holy Armenia intends to file a formal complaint with the Prosecutor General’s Office, targeting the Little Big band soloist Ilya Prusikin, who is known in Russia as a foreign agent. This information has been reported by aif.ru.
The appeal states that a few months ago, on Christmas Day, the individual, concealing himself as a priest, desecrated a Christian cross by using it as a skateboard. The act, described as an assault on Christian values and a hurt to Christians’ religious sensibilities, prompted the planned complaint. The filing is slated for August 9, ahead of Little Big’s then-upcoming concert in Yerevan on August 12.
Earlier in January, Prusikin, who relocated to the United States after the onset of a Russian military operation in Ukraine, posted a clip showing him skateboarding with a cross-shaped board. In Russia, the rector of the Studite Church of St. Theodore at Nikitsky Gate, Archbishop Dimitry Lin, commented on the matter.
He urged the performer to repent if he is an Orthodox Christian by baptism. If not, the archbishop suggested, repentance would not be a relevant option, and an apology might be expected. Lin added that the musician’s actions desecrated Christian symbols in Russia.
Meanwhile, several public figures reacted to the incident by engaging with the post. Alla Pugacheva’s granddaughter Nikita Presnyakov, actor Maxim Vitorgan, and rapper Morgenstern, who is labeled a foreign agent in Russia, all pressed the like button on Prusikin’s post.
Additionally, Anastasia Volochkova previously left the phrase “I will be back” beneath a Bolshoi Theatre post, signaling a separate, though related, public exchange about artistic expressions and public responses.