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RUSSIA-POLITICS-OPPOSITION-TRIAL

Source: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / Gettynews

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is now in its third week, and the majority of the world has decried the action including Russian citizens. Now, one notable Russian rapper is organizing a concert series to condemn the war.

According to reports, the rapper Oxxxymiron has put together a concert series that will be a show of protest against his country’s invasion of Ukraine. “Today my nose is red from the cold, I’m cheerful but very angry. I’m angry because sh*t’s still f*cked up, because the war in Ukraine has been going on for more than two weeks. And yet there are tens of millions of Russians who categorically disagree with this war. And I think this should be said as loudly as possible,” Oxxxymiron said in a video shared to Twitter.

“So I’m announcing a series of my charity concerts called Russians Against War or RAW for short. Right now it’s impossible to organize an anti-war concert in Russia. Because as insane as it may sound, everything anti-war is illegal these days. Total censorship has been implemented and anyone who speaks out against the war in any way becomes a potential target for criminal prosecution,” he said. The concert series will take place in Istanbul, Turkey beginning on March 15th (Tuesday). 100% of proceeds from the show will go towards the support of Ukrainian refugees, and will be streamed live on YouTube, Twitch and Instagram.

The 37-year old artist is highly popular in his homeland, with 1.3 million fans on Twitter and 2.2 million on Instagram. Oxxxymiron’s anti-war stance led him to cancel a series of concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg as Russia’s military forces invaded Ukraine’s eastern region at the direction of President Vladimir Putin in February. “I cannot entertain you when Russian missiles are falling on Ukraine,” he said at the time.

Thousands of Russian citizens have been arrested and detained for protesting the Ukraine invasion, with OVD-Info, a Twitter account monitoring dissent and political protests in the country reportedly estimating that 14,853 protesters have been detained across 151 cities as of March 13th (Sunday).