Diana Loginova and fiancé Alexander Orlov. Photo: SOTAvision
Two members of Russian band Stoptime who have been repeatedly jailed since performing songs by Russian artists deemed “foreign agents” on the streets of St. Petersburg in October, have fled Russia and gone into exile abroad following their release from police custody on Sunday, according to independent Russian media outlet Meduza.
A source told Fontanka that after the release of Stoptime lead singer Diana Loginova and her bandmate and fiancé Alexander Orlov, the two musicians were separately escorted from the detention centre by officers from Russia’s Centre for Combating Extremism, ensuring that neither of them could speak to reporters gathered outside.
On 11 November, both Loginova, who performs under the name Naoko, and Orlov were remanded in a third consecutive 13-day term of custody for “organising a mass event” on the streets of St. Petersburg.
Both Orlov and Loginova were immediately taken back into custody after being released from their second spell in custody, in what are known in Russia as “carousel arrests”, a method used to keep certain individuals in detention on misdemeanour charges while building a far more serious criminal case against them.
All three members of Stoptime, Loginova, Orlov and drummer Vladislav Leontyev, were first detained in St. Petersburg on 15 October after performing songs such as Swan Lake Cooperative by rapper Noize MC, the lyrics of which mock Kremlin pro-war propaganda narratives, and You are a Soldier, by singer-songwriter Monetochka, which includes the lyric: “And whatever war you are fighting, Sorry, I’ll be on the other side.”
Stoptime’s arrest caused widespread public consternation in Russia and led to a wave of protest TikToks, with clips of people performing tracks by Monetochka and Noize MC going from views in the tens of thousands to over a million within days.
