Russian Rapper Jailed for Navalny Protest ‘Profanity’

A St. Petersburg court has jailed Russian rapper Vyacheslav Mashnov, known as “Gnoyny” (“Rotten”), for using profanity at demonstrations in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Mashnov, who also goes by “Slava KPSS” (“Glory to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union”), was among the 1,500 people detained in Russia following Navalny’s Feb. 2 sentencing. Footage showed Mashnov ironically chanting “lick, don’t bite; a clitoris is a sensitive thing” at a march in Navalny’s support.

St. Petersburg’s Kuybyshev District Court found Mashnov guilty of petty hooliganism and handed him seven days of administrative arrest. His sentence was later reduced to one day, the St. Petersburg City Court's press service said.

“Mashnov shouted phrases containing the names of genitals while publicly expressing rude obscenities toward an indefinite circle of people,” the court’s press service said in an online statement.

Mashnov denied his guilt.

Gnoyny Slava KPSS rose to notoriety through Russian rap battles, in which contestants brag and insult each other before a jury.

Around 12,000 people are estimated to have been detained at Jan. 23, Jan. 31 and Feb. 2 rallies in Navalny’s support.

The third demonstration was sparked by a Moscow court sentencing Navalny to nearly three years in prison for violating parole in an old fraud case he calls politically motivated.

The fierce Kremlin critic had claimed physical inability to comply with parole requirements due to his hospitalization in Germany, where he spent months recovering from poisoning. 

European scientists concluded that Navalny was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok on an August 2020 trip to Siberia. Russia denies the poisoning and refuses to pursue a criminal investigation without Navalny’s medical analyses from the German hospital that treated him.