This is already at least the second case in which the creators of videos submitted to the music contest against the Party of Crooks and Thieves have been investigated "for extremism": Today it finally happened. — La-la, investigator, la-la-la. Come to UBOP (the Organized Crime Control Directorate) for a chat. — I'd rather have a summons and all that... — You'll get everything, just come. At the meeting, it was almost the same as with Zhenya. The investigator was friendly. He kept marveling at how anyone could even come up with something like this. We found some mutual acquaintances from KVN (a popular Russian comedy competition; Stavropol is a very small place). He complained to me that there are a lot of cases like this now: someone had cursed out the current prime minister, the future president, and something else too, and all of that gets dumped on them. When I asked what exactly the complaint against me was, he said it was the election campaign, the election law, that he himself didn't know, that this wasn't really his department at all, but he still had to deal with this nonsense. Basically, he again asked about any party affiliations, why, when, and who shot the unfortunate video. At the end he added that the fair prosecutor would sort it out, and for now I could just sit tight. Just in case, I recorded the whole conversation, but nothing extraordinary was said. Everything was more or less as described: muddled and unclear. http://boyle-mariotte.livejournal.com/14045.html It was over this video:
http://youtu.be/BEU1fBxkNcg Apparently the footage featuring the Big Shot with a flashing beacon seemed extremist. Strange: in Moscow, these Big Shots with flashing beacons drive into oncoming traffic all the time, and nobody investigates them for extremism. The first case was even more unpleasant.
As became clear from the comments on the post, all the students who took part in recording the video were hauled in before the university administration and given a plain-language lecture about extremism. Then on Monday, Boltenkov was approached by officers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB (Federal Security Service). Here is what he wrote to us: "If there is such a negative public reaction to the burning of ONF (All-Russia People's Front) campaign advertising, then I did everything possible not to stir this topic up—I closed the video entirely... It really is inappropriate for the internet... Today I was summoned by the relevant authorities, and it was decided to remove the video completely." http://gubdaily.ru/blog/news/delete/ The video was called "Revolution Is Burning," and unfortunately it has not been preserved. It's frightening to imagine how much material and human resources of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB are being diverted to this crap. How are they supposed to detain wanted suspects, with dangers like this all around—homemade songs and music videos? PS A reminder that the contest is still ongoing. Choose the clips you like and share them.