The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Crimea rejected the application for Russian citizenship of 34-year-old Ukrainian Olga Valeeva, who was a finalist in the Beauty Queen contest of Crimea. In October, a court found a Simferopol resident guilty of discrediting the RF Armed Forces and publicly displaying prohibited symbols.
The basis of the prosecution was the video recording of the two girls performing the Ukrainian song “Oh u Luzi Chervona Kalina” (“Chervona Kalina”), which was called “the anthem of an extremist organization” by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Until now, the composition was not included in the federal list of extremist materials of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
in a separate report
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“In August of this year, a citizen applied for Russian citizenship. During the check, the police officers learned that in October this year a citizen was brought to administrative responsibility in accordance with Art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.
The ministry said this was the basis for refusing citizenship applications.
Valeeva and her friend were detained in October by officials of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Crimea with the help of Simferopol and the FSB regional department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The court sentenced both performers of the song to administrative punishment: Valeeva was fined 40 thousand rubles, her friend was arrested for 10 days.
After the incident, the Crimean State Council filed an appeal with the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a request to recognize the song “Chervona Kalina” as extremist. Nikolai Volkov, chairman of the parliamentary committee on the preservation of culture and cultural heritage, described the composition as “a butchers and criminals’ song” and demanded that its performance be punished “to the fullest”, including imprisonment.
“The reply came from the Ministry of the Interior. You cannot sing this song. This is a violation of the law,” Volkov told KP-Krym.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Crimea stated that “Chervona Kalina” is an unofficial anthem of “Ukrainian nationalist organizations” that are recognized and banned as extremists: UNA-UNSO (an organization banned in Russia) and UPA (an organization banned in Russia). in the Russian Federation. For this reason, the Ministry announced that, in addition to the composition, the establishments with which it is associated are also banned in the country.
“I didn’t know this song was connected to anything”
After the accusations, Valeeva and her friend publicly apologized and sang the song without malice, stating that they didn’t want to promote anything.
“I’m saying it as it is! I didn’t know that this song was connected to something and was some kind of ban! And we sang it without any meaning and sub-meaning and symbol! We just sang a Ukrainian song (we thought it was a song we knew for a long time),” she explained.
According to Valeeva, she “hanged for literally two minutes” until she saw the video and asked her friend to delete the video, but someone managed to make a recording and spread it on social networks.
“If I knew what this song meant, as it turned out, do you think I would have suffered from this nonsense? I didn’t know,” he said.
“Chervona Kalina” removed from “Yandex.Music”
On November 9, the Yandex.Music service removed the song “Chervona Kalina” performed by the Ukrainian choir.
The service’s technical support announced to the Baza Telegram channel that it was blocked after the song. Roskomnadzor “sent a notification to all music platforms that access to this track should be restricted”. At the same time, “Chervona Kalina” performed by Alexander Malinin and several covers of the song are still available on Yandex.Music.
“The service has received an official request from Roskomnadzor to restrict access to this road. According to the “Information, Information Technology and Information Protection” law, Yandex.Music told RBC that Yandex.Music must comply with such requirements within 24 hours.
The song “Chervona Kalina” was written in 1914 by the poet and theater director Stepan Charnetsky for a play about Hetman Doroshenko. It is based on a folk song. The composition became a march of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. After the start of the Russian military operation “Chervona Kalina” gained popularity in Ukraine, especially among the military.
In September, six Crimean residents were brought to administrative responsibility for playing “Chervona Kalina” at a wedding in a restaurant. They were found guilty of promoting or publicly displaying Nazi equipment or symbols and discrediting the Russian military.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.