Screenshot: 7x7 / Telegram
Russian pro-war rapper Akim Apachev has infuriated local residents after footage of him emerged spraying anti-Ukrainian graffiti on buildings in the Kursk region town of Sudzha, independent news channel 7x7 reported on Sunday.
The video footage of Apachev in Sudzha, which was recently recaptured after spending months under Ukrainian occupation, appeared on pro-war Telegram channel WarGonzo on Saturday and shows Apachev spraying walls in the town with slogans such as “Ukrainians, suck dick” and “Russian World Z”.
Displaced locals, many of whom fled the town in August as Ukrainian forces entered the Kursk region, expressed anger at seeing Apachev there, noting that they were still not being permitted to return to Sudzha themselves.
“Damn, let me go to Sudzha. I promise I won’t graffiti anywhere. I just want to see what’s left of the place,” one woman wrote in a comment on Sudzha in Telegram.
Others were critical of the graffiti itself, considering it to be vandalism, while some expressed dismay that Apachev was capitalising on the recent events in Sudzha to boost his public profile.
“No sooner have they got rid of one set of bastards than the pseudo-patriots come flying in like flies to shit, so that there’s something to buzz about in the capital,” another comment read.
Stressing that Apachev’s “provocation” was unacceptable, the Kursk region’s acting governor, Alexander Khinshtein, accused the rapper of committing three separate civil offences and promised to report him to both the police and the regional Prosecutor’s Office.
Apachev, 39, was born Akim Gasanov in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol and is rumoured to have close links with various Russian ultranationalists, including Russian conservative theorist and noted conspiracy theorist Alexander Dugin.
The Russian Defence Ministry announced the recapture of Sudzha on 13 March. The town had been under Ukrainian control since Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk region in August, which ultimately lasted for over seven months, and which is still not over, with Ukraine reportedly still in control of several Russian villages.
