Russian prosecutors reportedly want Alla Pugacheva, known as the “queen of Soviet pop” music, to be designated by government officials as a potential threat.
Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office sent a request to the Ministry of Justice to have singer Alla Pugacheva designated as a foreign agent, state RIA news agency reported on Friday.
Pugacheva is among Russia’s most famous people and has, in the past, been celebrated by both President Vladimir Putin and his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. Upon the death of Mikhail Gorbachev in 2022, Pugacheva praised the last Soviet leader for allowing freedom and his rejection of violence.
Why would Pugacheva be labeled as a threat?
RIA published a copy of a document from the head of the Federal Project on Security and Anti-Corruption, Vitaly Borodin, that cited the request.
Pugacheva, who was for decades hugely popular in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, left the country with her husband several weeks after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
She caused a stir among both supporters and opponents of the war by saying that Russia had become a “pariah” state and that its soldiers were dying for “illusory goals.”
Pugacheva had provocatively suggested that authorities should classify her as a “foreign agent” — a status already applied to her spouse, the actor and comedian Maxim Galkin.
Source: Dw
