Status: 09/19/2022 8:17 p.m
Russian pop icon Alla Pugacheva has publicly criticized the war in Ukraine. The response is enormous: a political scientist is already talking about a trend towards protest mobilization.
Russia had just annexed Crimea when Vladimir Putin personally awarded Alla Pugacheva the “Order of Merit for the Fatherland” a few months later in 2014. The head of state pinned the red and gold badge to the black jacket of the Russian pop icon. Pugacheva thanked the President, but then ended her farewell speech by wishing for peace: “Peace, peace, peace around the world.” If there was only one song that could do that, she would sing it.
Russia is now waging an open war with Ukraine – and Pugacheva has emigrated to Israel with her husband, the satirist and presenter Maxim Galkin. However, Russian media are now reporting that at least Pugacheva is back in her home country – and even published her probably most political post on Instagram from here.
In 2014, Putin awarded Pugacheva a medal – her criticism at the time was much more subtle.
Image: AP
Not a stalk, “a whole tree trunk”
In the written statement she asked the Russian Ministry of Justice to be included in the list of “foreign agents”. Her husband Galkin was declared one on Friday. This is not a “patriot for sale,” wrote Pugacheva. Galkin only wishes his homeland “prosperity, a peaceful life, freedom of speech and an end to our boys dying for illusory ends”. These goals made Russia a pariah, i.e. an outsider, the pop icon went on to criticize – and made life more difficult for its citizens.
The fact that someone like the singer is now finding such clear words comes at a critical time for the Russian leadership, says independent political scientist Abbas Galjamov. Citizens have a “feeling of disappointed expectations”: “The standard of living is falling and there are no victories at the front.”
In such a situation, in principle, anything can play the role of “straw on the back of a camel,” says Galyamov, alluding to a Russian parable in which a patient camel is loaded with heavy luggage until it is under the weight of a single one straw collapses. And Pugacheva, that’s not a straw, says Galjamov, that’s “a whole tree trunk” – because she stands for a trend towards mobilization.
Whereas previously only politicized liberals criticized Vladimir Putin and his policies, it now turns out that non-political people who are loyal to the Russian leadership can also criticize them. Because the state authority is in the process of breaking the social contract with its citizens. They are dissatisfied and ready to become politicized – and this trend, according to the political scientist, is dangerous for the Kremlin.
Galkin defends himself against hostility
Not only Pugacheva enjoys the status of a Madonna in Russia. Her husband Maxim Galkin is also known throughout the country. The former moderator of the Russian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” 9.4 million people follow on Instagram. Putin parodies, but also other heads of state and government, made him a relevant critic in the broad Russian population.
Some media are now watching excerpts from his performances, Galkin criticized on his Instagram account a few weeks ago, claiming that he was “smearing dirt on his homeland”. In the 28 years of his career, he would never have said that once, not once.
However, he parodies politicians and “mocks fake, miserable propagandists and corrupt officials” who rob the Russian people, Galkin said. As a satirist, he has the right to do so. And he will continue to do so.
Peskow initially did not comment
The “Causa Pugachewa” has reached the Russian leadership. Even if Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov dismissed the enormous response to her post as a trifle and succinctly stated that he would “not comment in any way” on this topic: “I don’t think this is a question that the Kremlin has anything to do with has to do.”
Pugacheva became a world star in the 1980s. At that time, their EPs were printed in numbers of ten million. Female fans are said to have stood “honor guard” day and night in front of their apartment, German television reported.
At that time, Pugachewa wrote music history not least through her concerts with Udo Lindenberg. It was the end of the Cold War. And both music greats performed together, sang in the Soviet Union and in Germany in Russian and in German – including the song “What are wars for?”.