Jaroslaw Dronov, better known by his stage name Shaman, is the singer of the brutal war of aggression. This is how he went from being a cover band nobody to becoming the biggest star in Russia. Shaman’s patriotic enlightenment was unexpected and his rise was rapid.
It’s actually still night when Alexei Navalnyj, Russia’s most famous political prisoner, is woken up with pop music. At five o’clock in the morning, the order to “get up” is heard through penal camp number 3 in the Arctic, followed by the Russian anthem. Afterwards, “the second most important song in the country” booms through the barracks, as Navalnyj wrote on his Facebook page. It’s called “I am Russian”, the refrain goes like this: “I am Russian, I am lucky. I am Russian, despite the world.” A feel-good song for Putin supporters, a self-congratulation with the Kremlin’s grace. Navalny in the prison camp can laugh about it.
The singer of the Russian hit is called Jaroslaw Dronow, a young man who comes from a small town in the Moscow area. On stage he looks like a mixture of Rammstein and the Cossack Choir. He likes to appear in a shirt over tight leather trousers, with a large wooden cross on his chest. At first he wore his blonde hair in dreadlocks, but this hairstyle was apparently not Russian enough for a Russian patriot. It soon gave way to a severe parting.