Crowds in St Petersburg sing about overthrowing Putin

Hundreds gathered in St Petersburg to sing an outlawed song calling for Vladimir Putin's overthrow. Photo / Getty Images

Hundreds of young people gathered in St Petersburg to sing an outlawed song calling for Vladimir Putin to be overthrown.

In a rare moment of public dissent, the crowd joined street musicians in a central square on Tuesday night to sing anti-war lyrics that have been called “extremist” under Russian censorship laws.

“Where have you been for eight years, you f*****g monsters? I want to watch ballet, let the swans dance,” they chanted in Russian in the busy thoroughfare. “Let your grandpa tremble with excitement for Swan Lake.”

The song – entitled Co-operative Swan Lake, by Noize MC, a pro-Ukrainian rapper – has become an unofficial anthem to the growing dissolution and anger felt by young, liberal Russians towards Putin’s regime.

The 40-year-old musician, whose real name is Ivan Alekseev, fled to Lithuania soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Moscow has since declared him a “foreign agent”, a legal designation that has been used aggressively after the war to punish critics of the Kremlin.

Alekseev released Co-operative Swan Lake in 2022 to call for an end to Putin’s rule and condemn the apathy in Russian society towards the war in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Swan Lake became an unexpected symbol of political upheaval in the late years of the Soviet Union. It was broadcast on state TV on a loop following the death of Russian leaders and a failed political coup in 1991, which ushered in the collapse of the USSR.

The song’s title is also a reference to Lake Co-operative, in northwest Russia, where members of Putin’s inner circle travel for holidays. In the lyrics, Alekseev refers directly to Putin, saying: “Let the old man shake in fear for his lake.”

Earlier this year, a St Petersburg court ruled that the song amounted to “propaganda for violent change of the foundations of the constitutional order” and argued it was “harmful to minors” and to their “moral and ethical development”.

The video of crowds chanting its chorus sparked outrage on pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, with prominent propagandists calling for those involved to be punished immediately. So far, no arrests have been reported.

There have been reports of other public gatherings this summer in St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, where bands and crowds of young people have sung anti-war songs together, often including more of Alekseev’s work.

Under Russia’s censorship laws, any material designated “extremist” is effectively prohibited. As of July, anyone caught accessing outlawed content will also be labelled as an “extremist” and can be punished.

For musicians, the new laws have evoked Soviet-era suppression of the music scene, when authorities deemed rock musicians an ideological threat to the Communist regime and forced them underground.

Despite Alekseev’s music being banned on Russian platforms, millions of Russians still listen to it in bars, stream cover versions online or use VPNs to access it on YouTube.

Last month, Alekseev told The Atlantic: “People don’t want to hear, think, or talk about the war. They push it out of their conscience.” He also described the “indifference” of his compatriots towards the nearly four-year conflict as a “tragedy”.

In another song, called Yes Future!, he asks Russians to imagine a future for the country that is free of Putin and his repressive regime.

The lyrics say: “The weather will be great in St Petersburg! Someone good will end up in power; And everything will be fixed unexpectedly; The b******* will be punished – no one will get away with it.”

Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.