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St. Petersburg Street Musician Jailed Again Over Viral Anti-Putin Performance

Naoko (Diana Loginova). Olga Maltseva / AFP

A Russian court has sentenced 18-year-old street musician Diana Loginova to 13 days in jail for a second time this month over her viral performances of anti-Kremlin songs.

Loginova, the vocalist of the band Stoptime, was first arrested in mid-October alongside her two bandmates after being accused of organizing an unsanctioned public gathering. The trio had finished their first administrative sentences earlier this week.

On Tuesday, Loginova was fined 30,000 rubles ($375) for allegedly “discrediting” the Russian military by performing an anti-war song written by a designated “foreign agent” artist.

After Tuesday’s court ruling, Loginova was driven in an unmarked civilian vehicle to a police station, where she was hit with new administrative charges of organizing an unsanctioned gathering and petty hooliganism.

A St. Petersburg court on Wednesday found her guilty of the two offenses and sentenced her to 13 days of arrest for each, according to the news outlet RusNews. 

The sentences will run concurrently, meaning she will spend 13 days in detention instead of 26, it said.

Her bandmates, guitarist Alexander Orlov and drummer Vladislav Leontyev, have also faced repeated detentions. Orlov was sentenced on Tuesday to 13 days in jail, while Leontyev received 15 days for separate administrative violations.

Loginova, who performs under the stage name Naoko, announced on Stoptime’s Telegram channel that she and Orlov were planning to get married after the guitarist proposed to the singer inside a police van.

She faces a second charge of discrediting the army with her performance of another anti-war song, which could lead to criminal prosecution and several years in prison.

Loginova’s mother Irina Loginova told local media that her daughter would keep performing after her release.

“It’s her life,” she said.

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