Authorities in St. Petersburg said Thursday they had conducted a series of raids targeting street performers, issuing dozens of protocols and confiscating instruments amid a clampdown following the arrest of the street band Stoptime.
The city’s committee for legal affairs, a municipal body overseeing public order and local regulations, said it conducted joint raids with police as part of “routine control measures” between Oct. 20 and Oct. 31.
The operation was aimed at “identifying and stopping violations of the rules for organizing and holding street performances,” the committee wrote on Telegram.
“As a preventive measure, the tools and objects used in administrative offenses were seized,” the committee said, using legal phrasing that refers to confiscated guitars, amplifiers and sound equipment.
Officials drew up 23 administrative protocols under a city law regulating public performances and noise levels.
The regulation requires prior authorization for street music or demonstrations in crowded areas.
The raid comes amid a wave of police actions against musicians and supporters of Stoptime, whose members were arrested and handed successive back-to-back jail sentences last month for performing songs by artists labeled “foreign agents.”
The band’s arrest sparked a string of solidarity concerts and solo protests across Russian cities, a 100-person petition to the presidential administration demanding the bandmates’ release, as well as flyers posted across St. Petersburg.
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