A Belgorod city official has asked local clubs to ban live performances by heavy metal bands, citing the regional governor's instructions to combat "Satanist activities."
Vladimir Shatilo, head of the city's consumer market department, sent a letter to local clubs, cafes and restaurants seeking a ban on "hard rock music with a heavy metal style," Kommersant reported Thursday, citing several Belgorod clubs.
He wrote that his request was part of Governor Yevgeny Savchenko's 2010 program to "secure the spiritual safety" of the population.
Shatilo told Kommersant that he knew nothing about heavy metal and was only "fulfilling orders."
One regional official said the “spiritual safety” program proposed no ban on heavy metal gigs, only a recommendation to monitor them, the report said.
Another regional official spoke in favor of the ban, citing a study by the Serbsky Psychiatric Institute that found that "heavy metal has an ideologically destructive effect on people." But the official did not say whether the study and the ban were linked.