The lead singer of the Russian band Puppies Maxim Tesli was detained at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport on Monday, according to local news outlet Fontanka, one day after giving a concert in which he performed naked with just a sock covering his penis.
A source told Fontanka that Tesli had been detained by police while on his way to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, from where he planned to fly on to Kazakhstan. A decision is currently being made on whether to launch criminal proceedings.
Last month, Russian rapper Vacio was arrested after attending a now infamous “almost naked" party in Moscow in just a sock. He was subsequently charged with petty hooliganism and spreading “LGBT propaganda” and sentenced to 15 days in jail. Vacio said the reason for the second arrest was his aggressive behaviour towards the people who had tried to rip the sock off at the event.
According to Fontanka, the Interior Ministry’s Centre for Combating Extremism examined video footage of Tesli’s performance and saw “signs of a misdemeanour”.
Puppies, a band from Kingisepp near the border with Estonia, describe themselves as “dirty, loud and aggressive”. In an era of “total control,” the group says it is “not shy to sing about things that many people are afraid to even talk about”.
