Alla Pugacheva: Russian pop diva calls for "end of our boys dying for illusory goals"

Enlarge image

Singer Pugacheva with her husband Maxim Galkin (2nd from right) at a funeral in 2018

Photo: Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Images

She is now 73 years old - but Russia's most famous music star is still the Russian singer Alla Pugacheva.

This is also because she was always there for most Russians: Her career began in the 1960s, and when a pop hit list was published for the first time in the Soviet Union in 1987, there was - of course - Pugacheva in 1st place. She has sold more than 250 million records and CDs in her career.

Their biggest hits like "A Million Scarlet Roses" are still playing at many weddings between Kaliningrad and Vladivostok.

But for a long time - and this is not unimportant for the current developments - Pugacheva did not have an overly conflictual relationship with politics.

In 2012, she once publicly supported billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's presidential candidacy.

He stood for a liberal party, so on paper for the opposition.

Nevertheless, Prokhorov ran with the approval of the Kremlin.

As a (no chance) opponent, he was supposed to give Vladimir Putin's return to the presidential chair a somewhat more democratic touch.

Branding as "foreign agents"

Pugacheva's relationship to politics has changed since February.

She is now one of the most prominent opponents of the war in Ukraine.

On Sunday, she addressed an “Appeal to the Ministry of Justice” published with biting mockery on Instagram.

She asked that "I be accepted into the ranks of the foreign agents of my beloved country."

The background to this was the classification of Pugacheva's husband Maxim Galkin as a "foreign agent" by the Russian judicial authorities.

Galkin, 46, is known in Russia as a singer, presenter, but above all as a popular comedian.

Galkin was one of the first celebrities to openly oppose the attack on Ukraine in February, including on Instagram, where millions of Russians follow him.

Since then, Galkin has been considered a traitor to Russian nationalists.

He can no longer appear in Russia – but he still makes no secret of his opposition to the war.

Galkin is an "incorruptible patriot of Russia," Pugacheva now writes on Instagram, who wishes his homeland peace and freedom and "an end to our boys dying for illusory goals that make our country a pariah and burden the lives of our citizens."

Pugacheva had previously - also via Instagram - already messed with some of the most prominent Kremlin propagandists.

She wrote there about Russia's star director and Putin's darling Nikita Mikhalkov: »A wonderful director.

But where did the wonderful person Nikita Mikhalkov disappear to«?

Mikhalkov is an ardent admirer of Putin.

Mikhalkov recently made headlines by praising the alleged heroic death of a Russian fighter recruited from prison who was killed in action in Ukraine.

On the other hand, Mikhalkov said of the Ukrainian language that its mere existence was "a symbol of Russophobia."

Any term formulated in Ukrainian is "a formulation of hatred of Russia."

In addition, the TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov had attracted the ridicule of the singer Pugacheva.

Solovyov is known for his hateful tirades against Ukraine and the West, most recently targeting EU leader Ursula von der Leyen.

Pugacheva wrote about him: It is a pity about Solovyov.

If he continues like this, he will probably "burst with anger and rudeness."

beb