The Prosecutor General’s Office is asked to check the activities of the leader of the “Beasts” group for financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The corresponding letter was sent to the department by the Federal Project on Security and the Fight against Corruption. The appeal says that after 2014 the Zveri group refused to give concerts in the Crimea, and last spring its leader Roman Bilyk publicly spoke out against the CVO. The authors of the letter ask to check the singer’s statements, and also to find out if he finances the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Political scientist Georgy Bovt comments:
“At such times, activity of a twofold kind is exacerbated. Some people use this moment to settle scores with someone, because they know that law enforcement agencies are highly reactive to political signals. Others sincerely think that they are helping the state, they even try to run ahead of the locomotive, to be to the right of everyone. Given the rather high degree of political intolerance and the tradition of political intolerance, this may cause increased activity among a certain category of people. Most importantly, those who send both signals that have a measure of legitimacy and those who send deliberately false signals know that in the event of a false denunciation, they will go unpunished. Moreover, in the case of some dubious situations that can be interpreted in one direction or another, law enforcement officers can interpret it in the way that suits them, that is, in the direction of a tougher interpretation, since this has always been characteristic of them and has always been characteristic. Therefore, in such conditions of impunity for false denunciations, it can be expected that in the near future the number of such signals will increase.”
Earlier, Fontanka reported that the concert of the Beasts group was canceled at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The group planned to give a free concert on Palace Square.
According to the publication, Konstantin Chebykin, a deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, asked the city prosecutor to ban the performance of the Zveri group. In the group’s speech, Chebykin found “an insult to everyone who today, risking their lives, ensures the security of the interests of Russia and its population.”
In May, Roman Bilyk had a conflict with visitors to a Samara bar. According to the director of the “Beasts” group, the drunken company began to be rude because of the singer’s refusal to take a picture. Later, the director of the group said that the lead singer of the Zveri group did not fight with a visitor to the Samara bar and no one called the police.