Russian prosecutors have requested the justice ministry to consider designating Alla Pugacheva, the queen of Soviet pop music, as a “foreign agent”, according to the Reuters news agency.
If successful, this move would officially declare Russia’s most famous star as an adversary of the Kremlin.
Pugacheva, renowned for hits like the 1982 song, Million Scarlet Roses, and the 1978 film, The Woman who Sings, has expressed her disapproval of the Ukraine war.
In 2022, she criticized the war for its detrimental impact on soldiers and Russian citizens, and for isolating Russia from the international community.
Earlier this month, the 74-year-old stated that no normal person would return to Russia. She is currently residing abroad.
An activist, Vitaly Borodin, who leads an anticorruption group and frequently appears on state television, submitted an official request to recognize Pugacheva as a foreign agent.
Borodin then shared a letter from the prosecutor general’s office indicating that a request had been made to the justice ministry to consider this, as reported by Reuters.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that he had not received any official statements about the issue. Pugacheva, believed to be in Cyprus, did not immediately respond.
‘Moscow’s Tina Turner’
Officially designating Pugacheva as a “foreign agent” would highlight the divide between the Kremlin and many of the cultural icons of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia over Ukraine.
Such a move would likely require approval from the Kremlin. It has not yet commented publicly on the singer and could still intervene in the process.
In 2000, The New York Times described her as “the goddess of Russian pop, Moscow’s Tina Turner with a hint of Edith Piaf, whose songs have given voice to the yearnings of millions”.
Shot, a Russian media outlet with close ties to the security services, suggested that an official announcement may be made on her 75th birthday on April 15.
Being labeled as a “foreign agent” is often the first sign of serious trouble…
Original from www.aljazeera.com