Perm Musician Receives Community Service Sentence for Supporting Detained Band Stoptime

A court in Perm, Russia, has ordered a local street performer to complete 60 hours of community service for organizing an outdoor concert in support of the detained street band Stoptime from St. Petersburg, activists reported on Thursday.

Yekaterina Romanova was one of the organizers of a concert on October 22, intended to show solidarity with Stoptime, and was arrested the following Saturday, which was the day a second concert was set to take place.

Currently, Romanova is serving a seven-day jail sentence for supposedly refusing a drug test, a claim that her attorney contends is unfounded.

The Leninsky District Court in Perm found her guilty of “organizing a mass gathering in a public place that disturbed public order” and sentenced her to 60 hours of community service, according to local activist Artyom Faizulin.

“As absurd as this may seem, this is considered a relatively lenient sentence, and one that she can almost be viewed positively in the current context,” Faizulin shared on Telegram.

He mentioned that Romanova is likely to be released this Saturday, provided she does not face any further arrests.

This ruling occurs amid a crackdown on musicians and supporters of Stoptime, whose members were detained last month and received consecutive jail terms for performing songs by artists designated as “foreign agents.”

The arrests of the band prompted a series of solidarity concerts and individual protests throughout Russian cities, a petition with 100 signatures sent to the presidential administration demanding the release of the band members, and flyers distributed in St. Petersburg.