October 10, 2023

The Cost of Being Foreign Agent


The Cost of Being Foreign Agent
Charity concert by Oxxxymiron from the "Russians Against War (RAW)" series. This is the final of the three concerts at Huxley's, Berlin. Wikimedia Commons, A. Savin

Russian rapper Oxxxymiron, also known as Miron Fedorov, has been served with an R40,000 ($396) fine by the Kuibyshev District Court of St. Petersburg, according to reports from the city courts' joint press service. 

The penalty was imposed in accordance with the "foreign agents" law, which seeks to crack down on artists, activists, and other individuals who have been determined to be representing the interests of entities hostile to the Russian state.

Fedorov was found culpable under the specific provision outlined in Part 2 of Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code, pertaining to the failure to provide the Ministry of Justice with a report on the activities of a foreign agent. The court clarified that Fedorov was required to submit this report prior to January 15, 2023.

In October 2022, Fedorov was fined and labeled by the Russian government as a foreign agent after calling the Russian invasion of Ukraine a "catastrophe and crime." The Kremlin has deemed several of Fedorov's songs "extremist." For example, for his song “Oida," the rapper was fined R100,000 ($990) for the lines "Ingria will be free" and "To hell with the old house." Since leaving Russia, Fedorov has organized a series of charity concerts, raising funds in support of Ukrainian refugees. They were the rapper's first shows in five years

You Might Also Like

Where Is Polina Gagarina?
  • October 04, 2023

Where Is Polina Gagarina?

A pro-war concert promised great stars on the stage, but instead had only ultranationalist poets.
Street Musicians Killed by Missile
  • August 17, 2023

Street Musicians Killed by Missile

Two musicians were performing on the streets of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. An hour later, a Russian missile strike killed them.
Rockstar Declared Foreign Agent
  • July 05, 2023

Rockstar Declared Foreign Agent

The Ministry of Justice released a list of new "foreign agents." Among them is Boris Grebenshchikov, a respected founder of Russian Rock.  
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955