The St Petersburg City Court has received a lawsuit from the prosecutor’s office demanding that the song “Turn Off the Anthem” by Pornofilmy be recognised as extremist material. This was reported by Daria Lebedeva, head of the press service for the St Petersburg courts.
Prosecutor’s office specialists concluded that the track contains psychological and linguistic indicators of incitement to commit crimes based on political, ideological, racial, national, and religious grounds. The experts also believe the song calls for violence against government authorities and their representatives.
The prosecutor’s office is also asking for the song “Turn Off the Anthem” to be added to the federal list of extremist materials.
The respondents named in the case are Pornofilmy vocalist Vladimir Kotlyarov, drummer Kirill Muravyov and bass guitarist Alexander Agafonov.
The hearing to consider the lawsuit is scheduled for 13 August.
“Turn Off the Anthem” was released in 2014 as part of the album “Youth and Punk Rock.”
This is not the first song by the band the Russian authorities have attempted to ban. In 2023, links to their track “This Will Definitely Pass” were added to the list of banned materials by Roskomnadzor. In September 2021, the song “Kill the Poor” was declared extremist. Later, the organisation “Network Freedoms” managed to overturn this decision, but in 2023 a court once again declared the track banned.